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COLE LECTURES FOR 1900. 



THE COLE LECTURES. 

Col. E. W. Cole, of Nashville, Tenn., has donated to Van- 
derbilt University the sum of live thousand dollars, the design 
and conditions of which bequest are stated as follows: 

'*The object of this fund is to establish a foundation for a 
perpetual lectureship in connection with the Biblical Depart- 
ment of the University, to be restricted in its scope to a defense 
and advocacy of the Christian religion. These lectures shall 
be delivered at such intervals, from time to time, as shall be 
deemed best by the Board of Trust; and the particular theme 
and lecturer shall be determined by nomination of the Theolog- 
ical Faculty and confirmation of the College of Bishops of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Said lectures shall always 
be reduced to writing in full, and the manuscript of the same 
shall be the property of the University, to be published or dis- 
posed of by the Board of Trust at its discretion, the net pro- 
ceeds arising therefrom to be added to the foundation fund or 
otherwise used for the benefit of the Biblical Department." 



EXPERIENCE 



THE CROWNING EVIDENCE OF THE 
CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 



LECTURES 

Delivered Before the Biblical Department of 
Vanderbilt University. 



BY 

JOHN C. GRANBERY, D.D., 

\ ■ 

Oyie of the Bishops oj the Methodist Episcopal Churchy South, 









Nashville, Tenn.; Dallas, Tex.: 

Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South. 

Barbee & Smith, Agents. 

1901. 






THE LIBRARY OFJ 


CONGRESS, 1 


Two Copies 


Received 


JUL. 27 


1901 


Copyright 


ENTRY 


Qa^fo, 


i^CO 


CLASS CL ymb, No.| 


^<r^ 


o3 


COPY 


B. 



Copyrighted, 1900, 

BY 

Barbee & Smith, Agents. 









( ( ( 



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CONTENTS, 

LECTURE I. p^g^ 

External and Internal Evidence 3 

LECTURE IL 

Comparison of Heathen and Christian Ex- 
perience e . , o , 37 

LECTURE III. 

Comparison of Israelite and Christian 
Experience . . . . , „ , . . . . 69 

LECTURE IV. 

The Crisis of Conversion, and Religion as 
A Continuous State ..._....., 99 

LECTURE V. 

Conflict and Growth . „ .,..,.«.,,.. . 131 

LECTURE VL 

The Transcendent Value of this Evi- 
dence 163 

(V) 



LECTURE I. 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 

(1) 



I. 

EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 

IS it worth while in our day, in this place, to dis- 
^ cuss the evidences of Christianity? I think so. 
One may claim to be rooted and grounded in the 
faith so firmly that to him argument in its favor and 
refutation of objections are superfluous. Happy 
is he who has the full assurance, if it be supported 
by the realization in his heart of the benediction 
so familiar to the ear, *^The grace of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the com- 
munion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all." For 
to know this grace, love, and communion is to 
know the gospel; and to experience the blessing is 
to attain the end for which Christ Jesus came into 
the world. It shall be the aim of these lectures to 
set forth such experience not only as one of the 
evidences, but as their crown. It carries faith 
into knowledge: we know him whom we have be- 
lieved. The scholar, the theologian, cannot affirm 
this; the Christian can. He does not stand on 
the outside, and strain his eyes to see what is with- 
in; he has entered into the holy of holies, where 
the glory shines. 

(3) 



4 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

Yet, as none of us liveth to himself, and free- 
dom from doubt and from even temptation to doubt, 
does not discharge from the debt of love to serve 
one another, but augments obligation, the assured 
believer should seek, as far as he has opportunity, 
to be freshly and thoroughly conversant with the 
evidences, so that he may be ready to strengthen 
brethren who are weak in the faith and to rescue 
those whose feet are slipping near the edge of the 
abyss of infidelity. Moreover, it is a dangerous 
security which puts us off our guard, and supposes 
that the enemy, because beaten and withdrawn, 
will never rally for another attack. Skepticism, 
though substantially the same as of old, changes 
form and voice, weapons and tactics. It employs 
the facts, theories, and terms of modern science 
and history. It transforms itself into an angel of 
light, and is very friendly in its tones. It eulo- 
gizes Christ for the wisdom, purity, and self-sacri- 
fice in which he stands preeminent among men, 
while denying his supernatural birth and Messi- 
anic claims. It compliments Christianity, having 
first taken away the bony framework of miracu- 
lous facts and divinely revealed doctrines, and the 
life breathed into it by the Holy Ghost. It uses 
every charm of style, and not only bulky books 
and elaborate controversies which may suit thf 



EXTERNAL, AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 5 

learned, but also piquant essays and fascinating 
fiction, the monthly magazine and the weekly and 
daily papers. The air is full of unchristian and 
antichristian sentiments — seeds which are wafted 
from many fields, and drop quietly down into all 
minds. Subtle and plausible objections to the 
gospel as taught by the evangelists and apostles 
may be lodged in the mind of a Christian who 
was too well satisfied to examine the foundations 
of his belief; and, being to him novel and spe- 
cious, they may refuse to be dismissed by a mere 
decree of the will, but continue to annoy him until 
he find a reasonable answer. Or it may be that 
a change of health or outward condition will open 
the door to doubts that have been barred out. 
He has new associates, charming in culture and 
speech, who introduce their skeptical ideas not 
rudely and offensively, but in an incidental way 
and with a courtesy of manner, yet with persist- 
ence, perhaps in the form of questions, perhaps as 
conclusions on which the educated world has now 
agreed as fully proved. Or the quiet and content 
which no doubt disturbed while he enjoyed vigor 
of body and worldly prosperity, and promised 
himself that he would die in his nest at a good old 
age, may be displaced by painful questionings and 
misgivings, in the thickening gloom of sicknesa 



6 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

and calamity. It is well that you be ^' ready al- 
ways to give answer to every man that asketh you 
a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet 
with meekness and fear," not with pride and 
presumption: ''having a good conscience; that, 
wherein ye are spoken against, they may be put 
to shame who revile your good manner of life in 
Christ."^ Of first importance are the good con- 
science and the good manner of life; the inner 
consciousness and its manifestation in conduct; 
the religion which is not speculative, but experi- 
mental, vital, and practical. The sword of the 
Spirit, which is the word of God, must be handled 
by a soldier who is protected by the shield of a 
personal faith and the breastplate of a personal 
righteousness. 

The great body of laymen may justly say that 
in their scant time for religious reading they can 
find more pleasing and edifying matter than dry 
and thorn}^ disputes over the thousand and one 
difficulties in the way of accepting Christ at which 
some people stumble. They have my sympathy if 
they turn away with a measure of impatience from 
such discussions, and prefer the rich pastures on 
which the dews of heaven distill, and through which 

1 1 Pet. iii. 15, 16. 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 7 

flow living streams — pastures which abound in the 
Holy Scriptures and their exposition, in the biog- 
raphies of saints, in devotional books, and in trea- 
tises on the higher and larger life which is pro- 
vided for us in Christ. Nevertheless, apologetics 
has its place and value, both in its positive proofs 
and in its refutation of objections; and it will be 
wise and wholesome for any man to inform him- 
self, as far as he may, of the general lines of evi- 
dence and defense. The new heart, holy, trustful, 
full of the Spirit, is the inmost and safest citadel 
in which true religion is kept and guarded ; but it 
is not necessary, not wise, to abandon outer walls 
of fortification. I would not deprecate other evi- 
dences; my special business, however, calls me 
not to detain you on the outskirts, or in compara- 
tively obscure and unimportant corners, of the 
kingdom of God, but to lead you straight into its 
heart and center; to present those evidences which 
are not apart from the substance of the gospel, 
from its fundamental facts, its spiritual lessons, its 
holy law, and its exceeding great and precious 
promises, but which are contained in them, and in 
the vital godliness produced and fostered by them 
in the believing soul. I would hold before you 
Christianity self-luminous, Christianity its own 
demonstration. The challenge is: Look on Chris- 



8 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

tianity, and see that it is of God ; put it to the test 
of experience, and prove that it is both true and 
divine. 

While one man considers the truth of the Chris- 
tian rehgion too clear to require discussion, his 
neighbor may stumble at the fact that there is 
any room for doubt and debate. He reasons thus : 
The sun in heaven compels belief in itself by its 
simple shining. No person of sound eyes and 
brain can doubt its existence, or that it is the 
fountain of our seeing. Argument for it is need- 
less, argument against it absurd. If the gospel 
is the sun of the moral firmament, why does it not 
command like instantaneous and irresistible be- 
lief? Why is there reason for investigation and 
polemics to determine whether Christ is the light 
of the world? He may as reasonably press other 
questions: Why is there possibility of mistake or 
doubt in the interpretation of the Bible ? Why is 
not its meaning plain beyond power of missing 
or misunderstanding? or why does not everybody 
possess such clearness, correctness, and strength 
of intellectual vision, such soundness of judg- 
ment, that he will see into the reality and heart of 
things, so as neither to be confused by mysteries 
nor duped by appearances and sophistries? Ques- 
tions outside the sphere of revelation may follow: 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 9 

Why is the flesh subject to disease and decay? 
Why is so much of the globe frozen, or torrid, or 
waterless, or malarial? Why do earthquakes, cy- 
clones, floods, tidal waves, plagues, destroy life 
and property? Why are there enticements to sin 
and difficulties in the practice of virtue? It is 
easy to multiply such questions ; to answer them 
surpasses human wisdom. Humility and rever- 
ence, thankfulness and trust, submission and obe- 
dience, before the great God and Father, become 
us. Facts whose reason we do not understand 
must be acknowledged and accepted as features 
of our probationary state, as God's actual method 
of testing, exercising, correcting, developing men, 
that they, coworkers with him, may be meet for a 
better and perfect state hereafter. Let us not put 
our eyes out because they are defective, nor shut 
them against the light because it is dim ; but let 
us clarify and strengthen our sight, and walk in 
the light which God gives. Study the written 
word, pray for the illumining and sanctifying 
Spirit, and submit yourselves to the commands 
and direction of God in all things, that in the re- 
newing of your minds, in the transformation of 
your characters, and in holy worship and obe- 
dience, you may prove, not theoretically, but in 
personal experience, what is the good and ac- 



lO EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

ceptable and perfect will of God. What would 
God have me to be and to do? That is the 
question of questions. It is not chiefly a question 
of curiosity, to satisfy the desire of knowledge, to 
complete a creed or a philosophy. It is of far 
deeper moment. It is to be learned in experience 
of the work of grace. This experience is a light 
waxing brighter and brighter unto the perfect 
day. 

The distinction between external and internal 
evidence is old, real, and important. You may 
have heard on what vou considered P'ood author- 
ity that a notable article in a magazine was from 
the pen of a man whom you know intimately: 
that is external proof of the authorship. You 
read the article; the sentiments, style, allusion to 
certain local incidents, and a number of peculiar 
phrases and turns of thought convince you beyond 
doubt that he is the writer: this is internal proof, 
proof contained in the writing itself. The titles 
and testimonials of a professor prepared you to 
expect from him a series of scholarly and able lec- 
tures: that is evidence from without. He comes; 
you hear him from start to finish; you depend 
henceforth on no witness; learning, depth and 
breadth of thought, humor, lucidity and grace of 
expression, power to thrill and uplift the hearer, 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 11 

are proved to be gifts of the speaker. You know 
for yourself his worth. 

Two incidents in the ministry of Jesus may il- 
lustrate this distinction. While he was in the up- 
per room of a house in Capernaum a crowd gath- 
ered to see and hear him. Four men, carrying a 
paralytic on a litter, and not being able to reach 
the door on account of the press, ascended to the 
flat roof, made an opening, and let down the bed. 
Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the invalid, " Son, 
thy sins are forgiven." Certain scribes silently 
reasoned in their hearts, ''Why doth this man so 
speak? he blasphemeth: who can forgive sins but 
one, even God?" He answered their thought: 
*'That ye may know that the Son of man hath 
power on earth to forgive sins, I say unto thee, 
Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thy house. 
And he arose, and straightway took up the bed, 
and went forth before them all; insomuch that 
they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, 
We never saw it on this fashion." It may be that 
the man had brought paralysis on himself by sen- 
sual sin, and that the healing was meant to be a 
visible mark of pardon by the removal of the 
physical penalty. However this may have been, 
there was no necessary connection between the 
outward cure and absolution from guilt: he might 



1:2 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

have been forgiven without restoration to health, 
or have been healed in body without receiving the 
remission of sins. The miracle was, however, 
a decisive vindication of Christ's claim that he 
had authority to forgive sins. The paralytic was 
conscious of the change wrought in his body, and 
the people saw the evidence of the cure in the 
free movement of the man who had been impo- 
tent. This cure was performed immediately, by 
a word, in attestation of his power to pronounce 
the pardon; and the lesson could not be resisted 
that God was with this teacher, and had endowed 
him with supernatural might. But let us suppose 
what perhaps did happen, though not recorded — 
namely, that as the absolution was spoken, there 
came into the heart of the sick man a sweet, 
strange peace, the peace of God which passeth 
all understanding, the peace of reconciliation, the 
joy of God's favor, the assurance that therfe was 
on him no burden of condemnation, that no bar- 
rier of uncanceled guilt remained between his 
soul and his holy Sovereign. This was to him, if 
he had the experience, an inner and direct evi- 
dence of divine grace, of actual acceptance, of 
the authority of Jesus to grant remission of sins. 
Others could know this spiritual change only 
through his testimony and through the life he 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 1 3 

from that day lived among them. But to him it 
was a fact of consciousness. 

The second incident occurred in Sychar, a 
town of Samaria.^ Jesus sat at noon by the well, 
weary with his journey and athirst: his disciples 
had gone into the city to buy food. A woman 
came with a waterpot to be filled ; and he asked 
her to give him to drink. She was surprised 
that a Jew asked drink of her, a Samaritan. He 
seized this opportunity to speak to her of a 
deeper need and a richer blessing. If she had 
known God's great gift and who Jesus was, she 
would have asked of him living water, water 
springing up continually in the heart to satisfy its 
thirst unto eternal life ; and he would have freely, 
gladly given her. To excite more strongly her 
interest and help her faith, he spoke of her five 
husbands and her present paramour; and she 
said: ''Sir, I perceive that thou art a proph- 
et." Only a meager outline of the conversation is 
given; but we have sufficient reason to infer that 
a fountain of pure and noble affections and aims 
then sprang up in her soul, which made her a dif- 
ferent w^oman, and sent her home with a happi- 
ness beyond all she had ever conceived. This 

ijohn iv. 



14 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

experience of a changed heart, of an inner and 
abiding satisfaction of her deepest and best yearn- 
ings, was a stronger evidence that Jesus was the 
Messiah than his knowledge of her past life; it 
was, indeed, the realization in herself of the 
salvation which the Messiah should bring. She 
knew the personal blessing, and that its source 
must be God. 

Hasting to the city, she spread the news: 
^'Come, see a man which told me all things that 
ever I did: can this be the Christ?" So far as 
we are informed, he told her only a few facts, but 
they were pivotal points of her history. ''Many 
of the Samaritans believed on him because of the 
word of the wpman who testified. He told me 
all things that ever I did. So when the Samar- 
itans came unto him, they besought him to abide 
with them: and he abode there two days. And 
many more believed because of his word; and 
they said to the woman. Now we believe, not be- 
cause of thy speaking: for we have heard for 
ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Sav- 
iour of the world." They had not less faith in 
her testimony, but they no longer needed it. 
They had a stronger assurance. Belief became 
knowledge. The words of Jesus carried convic- 
tion of their truth and of his divine office. The 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 1 5 

heart responded to his teaching as the eye re- 
sponds to the Hght. 

Miracles and prophecies are the two great 
branches of the external evidence of Christianity. 
Miracles are supernatural manifestations of pow- 
er, prophecies are supernatural manifestations of 
wisdom, by which God bears witness to his mes- 
sengers. The validity of such testimony is clear- 
ly taught in these words: '*How shall we escape, 
if we neglect so great salvation ? which having at 
the first been spoken through the Lord, was con- 
firmed unto us by them that heard; God also 
bearing witness with them, both by signs and 
wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts 
of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will."^ 
The two great branches of internal evidence are 
the wisdom, purity, loftiness, and spiritual power 
of the gospel which commend it to the conscience 
and the reason as both true and divine, God's 
revelation of himself to man ; and the change in 
heart and life which it works when received by 
faith, out of darkness into light, out of bondage 
into liberty, out of sin into holiness, out of aliena- 
tion from God into adoption as his children, par- 
ticipation of his nature, the indwelling of his Spir- 
it, and daily fellowship with him. 

1 Heb ii. 3, 4, 



l6 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

Both kinds of evidence are valid and valuable. 
Both kinds should be presented and pressed 
through all the ages. They are not, however, of 
equal dignity and worth. The internal evidence 
has more of directness, less of inference. It rests 
not on what is incidental, but on the substance of 
the revelation. It depends not on the credibility 
or authority of human witnesses, but on the appeal 
of Christianity to each man's mind and heart, and 
on the verification of its truth and promises in the 
experience of every believer. It is of a higher 
order in that not the outer man, not the five 
senses, but the inner man, the spiritual discern- 
ment and susceptibility, is addressed and affected. 
The order of excellence is not the order of time. 
'^Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but 
that which is natural ; then that which is spiritual. ' ' ^ 
The child is taught by individual, concrete, sensi- 
ble objects: later he can deal with abstract and 
general truths. As Jesus was entering the dark 
shadow of his sacrificial suffering and death, he 
said: ''Now is my soul troubled; and what shall 
I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for 
this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify 
thy name. There came therefore a voice out of 

1 1 Cor. XV. 46. 



EXTERNAL, AND INTERNAL. EVIDENCE. 1 7 

heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will 
glorify it again. The multitude therefore, that 
stood by, and heard it, said that it had thundered: 
others said, An angel hath spoken to him. Jesus 
answered and said, This voice hath not come for 
my sake, but for your sakes." -^ The anguish was 
his, a real and sore anguish, uttering itself in ear- 
nest prayer. But the miraculous voice he did not 
need; his trust in the Father required no such 
support; the multitude, or his disciples, were 
helped by a sign. To Thomas, the disciple of 
an honest heart but feeble faith, longing to learn 
with certainty that his Lord had risen from the 
dead, but determined to accept no proof except 
his own eyesight and hand-grasp, Jesus graciously 
granted the evidence he desired; but he gently 
reproved him for needing that sort of evidence 
after years of intimate intercourse with Christ who 
had shown himself, and been confessed, as the 
Son of God, the Saviour of the world, the light 
and life of men. It should have been easy for 
him to believe that Jesus could not be holden of 
death, but had resumed the life surrendered of 
his own accord out of love to the world. * 'Jesus 
saith unto him, Because thou hast seen me, thou 

ijohn xii. 27-30. 



l8 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

hast believed : blessed are they that have not seen, 
and yet have believed."^ Elisha asked for the 
frightened young man who ministered to him, 
what he diJ not ask for himself, that his eyes 
might be opened to see the horses and chariots of 
fire which encircled the prophet. Elisha' s faith 
needed not the prop of sense, but reposed in per- 
fect peace on the faithfulness and love of God. 
Yet, that the legitimacy and force of outside evi- 
dence may not be underestimated, hear what the 
evangelist wrote immediately after his record of 
Christ's lesson to Thomas: ^'Many other signs 
therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disci- 
ples, which are not written in this book: but these 
are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may 
have life in his name." 

Miracles were specially useful at the introduc- 
tion of a new epoch or stage of revelation. They 
served to arrest attention, produce conviction, and 
win a favorable hearing. Such an epoch was the 
exodus from Egypt of the Israelites and their 
settlement in Canaan as an independent people. 
Coleridge aptly compared miracles to the church 
bell which calls the people together that they may 

ijohn XX. 29. 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 1 9 

hear the sermon to follow. The sermon and the 
service are the object; but they will not avail with- 
out the congregation. Miracles may also be an 
alarm bell to arouse the sleepers and warn them 
of danger. Jehovah descended on Sinai to pro- 
claim the law. The summit was covered with a 
thick cloud, and smoke as from a furnace, and 
flame; there were lightnings and thunders, the 
tones of a trumpet sounding long and waxing 
louder and louder. Awe fell on the whole peo- 
ple. Then God spoke out of the cloud and of the 
fire, ''Thou shalt have no other gods before me," 
and all the ten words or commandments. The 
grand and terrific phenomena prepared Israel to 
hear : the giving of the law was the truly sublime 
and significant event; and it was a gift to all sub- 
sequent ages and to all nations. It is the basis of 
the moral law among Jews, Mohammedans, and 
Christians. It is written on many tables of stone, 
repeated week after week by many congregations, 
committed to memory by countless children. It 
has sounded clear and loud in the inner ear of a 
multitude a million times greater than the tribes 
encamped at the foot of Sinai; it has shone into 
as many hearts with more than electric splendor. 
It quickens conscience, revives memory of past 
transgressions, uncovers the deep-seated enmity 



20 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

of the carnal mind against God, and excites fear 
and remorse exceeding the effect of its first pro- 
mulgation. It has moved untold numbers to godly 
sorrow and struggles after righteousness. 

The nineteenth Psalm consists of two parts: the 
first, a description of the celestial firmament as a 
revelation of God; the second, a eulogy of the di- 
vine law. ' ' The heavens declare the glory of God, 
and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day 
unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night 
showeth knowledge." Familiarity should not dull, 
but deepen, the lesson and impression of this ser- 
mon, which each day, each night repeats, '^ There 
is no speech nor language; their voice cannot be 
heard." Noises abound on earth; absolute, un- 
broken silence reigns in the starry heights. Yet 
''their line is gone out through all the earth, and 
their words to the end of the world." Creation is 
not dumb, but men are deaf. The sun rises and 
sets with perfect precision of time and orbit, pour- 
ing forth floods of splendor with never-lessening 
fullness, fostering life with light and heat, a con- 
stant witness to the presence and goodness of the 
one Maker and Lord. Yet there are men who re- 
fuse to see aught except the ball of fire, the uni- 
form order, and the beneficent effects: they say, 
''No First Cause, no design, no God! " 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 21 

The Singer passes from the material heavens to 
the moral law. " The law of the Lord is perfect, 
restoring the soul: the testimony of the Lord is 
sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of 
the Lord are wise, rejoicing the heart: the com- 
mandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the 
eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring 
forever: the judgments of the Lord are true, and 
righteous altogether. More to be desired are they 
than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also 
than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by 
them is thy servant warned: in keeping of them 
there is great rew^ard." The firmament and the 
law display the same origin, the same Author. 
Both are of God in the sense that they are his 
work. But the revelation of God in the law tran- 
scends the revelation in sun and stars, and is divine 
in a higher meaning, because moral: it is godlike 
in quality. Gravitating, luminous, burning, are 
epithets which belong to matter, not to the Infinite 
Spirit. True, righteous, pure, belong to God, 
and are ascribed to his law. Law, however, is 
not personal, is not living. Its end, its worth, is 
found in its effect on rational men. The spoken 
and written law becomes experience in the believ- 
ing, obedient soul. It is converted into wisdom, 
holiness, and joy. The divine qualities which in 



22 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

a sense are affirmed to mark the law inhere not 
in spoken words, but in enlightened minds, in 
cleansed and restored souls, in devout and trust- 
ful hearts. The sunlit and starlit heavens are a 
revelation of God only to m.en who have eyes to 
see and reason to interpret: the decalogue is a 
revelation only to men who possess a moral na- 
ture; they alone can admire its beauty, radiance, 
and grandeur, and taste its svv^eetness. The twin 
internal evidences are the word and the sanctified 
heart. " But we all, with unveiled face reflecting 
as a mirror," or, '^ beholding as in a mirror," 
*'the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the 
same image from glory to glory, even as from the 
Lord the Spirit."^ 

Jesus was, like Moses, a prophet, but far greater 
than all other teachers and prophets: for ''the law 
was given by Moses; grace and truth came by 
Jesus Christ." His hearers testified, ''Never man 
spake like this man." He also wrought miracles 
on a great scale: they drew and fastened the at- 
tention of multitudes, and often procured a favor- 
able hearing of his words. Would they have fol- 
lowed him, and listened to the Sermon on the 
Mount, if miracles of healing had not preceded? 

1 2 Cor. iii. i8. 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 23 

That exposition of the law of the kingdom of heav- 
en, of a righteousness far surpassing the boastful 
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, with- 
out which no man can enter into the kingdom, has 
wrought, and continues to work, wonders more 
stupendous, more beneficent, of a higher rank, 
than ten thousand cures of paralysis, leprosy, deaf- 
ness, blindness, and other bodily defects and mal- 
adies; than feeding the multitude, stilling the 
storm, and raising the dead. It approves itself to 
the universal reason, conscience, and heart. To 
Christians it is the rule of life, the standard of 
judgment, the ideal of aspiration. But to be un- 
derstood, and to exert its illumining and purifying 
power, the sermon must be heard or read, and 
pondered. Wonders and signs attracted the peo- 
ple, and opened their ears. 

Bible miracles were more than marvels and dis- 
plays of supernatural power. The daily manna 
was a wise and merciful providence, a lesson on 
the continual presence and care of the God of Is- 
rael. Jesus went about doing good. Homeless, 
penniless, often weary from travel and teaching, 
he showed himself the friend of man, of all class- 
es and conditions, full of compassion for the 
poor, the suffering, the despised, the outcast. 
The outgoing of his power was in accord with his 



24 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

doctrine and mission, manifested his spirit, and 
enforced the lessons he taught. Works of mercy, 
they were also symbols of his spiritual offices for 
sinful and sorrow-laden humanity. 

Certain miracles are not only credentials of the 
Christ, but an integral portion of the revelation. 
This is eminently true of his resurrection. As a 
fact, it was attested by many competent and trust- 
worthy witnesses ; as an evidence of the author- 
ity of Jesus it cannot be refuted. The same may 
be affirmed, though not in an equal degree, of the 
resurrection of Lazarus. *' He was declared to 
be the Son of God with power, according to the 
spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the 
dead.'V^ But his resurrection is a truth as well as 
a fact. It is an essential feature in the system of 
redemption. It fills a place in the gospel like 
that of the crucifixion. ''It is Christ Jesus that 
died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, 
who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh 
intercession for us."^ ''Who was delivered for 
our offenses, and was raised again for our justifi- 
cation."^ "I am the first and the last. I am he 
that liveth, and was dead: and behold, I am alive 
for evermore, Amen, and have the keys of hell 
and of death." ^ His resurrection not only proves 

iRom. i. 4. 2 Rom. viii. 34. ^Rom. iv. 25. ■* Rev. i. 17, iS. 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 25 

the gospel, but it is of the substance of the gospel. 
You cannot cut out of Christianity the cross and 
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus without de- 
stroying its life, as you cannot cut out the heart of 
a man without killing the body. As a simple fact, 
the resurrection rests on abundant testimony of 
the most convincing power. As an essential con- 
stituent in the divine plan of salvation by grace 
through faith, it has self-evidencing power. 

A like distinction applies to prophecy. Spe- 
cific predictions of matters of fact v/ere made: 
their fulfillment belongs to the external evidences. 
But prophecy was wider and grander than the 
foretelling of events. It was the preaching be- 
forehand of the gospel, in its fundamental princi- 
ples, in its essential facts and truths. It was full 
of the evangelical spirit, of promise of the bright- 
er day of the coming kingdom of the Messiah. 
Christians read with edification and delight the 
Psalms and the Prophets, not solely, not chiefly, 
for the striking predictions they contain of what 
now is history, but for their sublime and holy ex- 
pression of reverence, contrition, trust, peace and 
joy in God, and longings after God; and for the 
foreshadowing of the reign of truth, righteous- 
ness, and mercy in Christ, which shall include all 
nations. Prophecy in this broad sense is the 



26 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

strongest outer evidence, because the foresight of 
the mightiest and most blessed event in the his- 
tory of the race, the advent of the Christ and 
Saviour, and of its ever developing fruit; and at 
the same time it is inner evidence, self-evidence, 
because independently of the times of its publica- 
tion and of its coincidence with later occurrences, 
it is music to the ear and effulgence to the eye, 
the inspired song, the intense outbeaming, of di- 
vine wisdom, holiness, and grace. 

We should not overlook the moral receptiveness 
which was the condition of reading aright those 
object lessons. On the mind, the heart, the will, 
depended the measure of benefit to be derived. 
The miracles of Jesus excited in many a shallow 
and transient interest. ^^Many believed in his 
name, when they saw the miracles which he did. 
But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that 
he knew all men, and needed not that anv one 
should bear witness concerning man ; for he him- 
self knew what was in man."^ Trifling, carnal, 
and selfish men cared only to gratify curiosity, or 
to obtain worldly good. Of ten lepers who were 
cleansed, only one returned to give thanks and to 
glorify God: the nine had gotten all they wanted. 

|W» »^— — —i^ll^^l— M— — IWW^M I II — — — ■ ■ " ■ " ■- IIP— — — ^■^^^M^^»W^»^^i^— W^ — -■ I ■ ■ ■■ 

ijohn ii. 23-25. 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 2*J 

The five thousand who were filled said, ''This is 
of a truth that prophet that should come into the 
world." They would have made him king; but 
the satisfying of hunger and the hope of like fa- 
vors to follow were their whole motive. ^'Verilv, 
verily, I say unto you. Ye seek me, not because 
ye saw signs, but because ye did eat of the loaves, 
and were filled." If they had penetrated into the 
significance of the miracle, they would have cried 
out, *' Master, feed our famished souls on the 
bread of eternal life!" Haughty Pharisees who 
hated his teaching gave this explanation of the 
miracles they could not deny: '* This man doth not 
cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the 
devils." ^ How opposite was the effect on Simon 
of the miraculous draught of fishes ! ^' But Simon 
Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus' knees, 
saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 
O Lord."^ The miracles, besides signifying the 
authority and grace of Jesus, developed signal hu- 
mility, faith, gratitude, and love, in the centurion, 
the woman of Canaan, the sisters of Lazarus, and 
other persons. 

It may be interesting to consider the relation ol 
miracles to the faith of John the Baptist and Saul 

1 Matt. xii. 24. 2 Luke v. 8. 



28 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

of Tarsus. When Jesus abode for a time in the 
place beyond Jordan where John was at the first 
baptizing, ^'many resorted unto him; and said, 
John indeed did no sign: but all things whatso- 
ever John spake of this man were true." ^ John's 
mission did not need any miracle. He was a her- 
ald of the Christ and a preacher of repentance. 
He did not say of himself: " Before Abraham was, 
I am: My Father and I are one: Come unto me, 
and I will give you rest." ''Now when John 
heard in the prison the works of the Christ, he»sent 
by his disciples, and said unto him. Art thou he 
that cometh, or look we for another? And Jesus 
answered and said unto them. Go your way and 
tell John the things which ye do hear and see : 
the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, 
the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and 
the dead are raised up, and the poor have good 
tidings preached to them. And blessed is he, 
whosoever shall find none occasion of stum- 
bling in me."^ John was a cousin of Jesus, and 
by six months his senior. From childhood he 
was taught by his parents that he should be a fore- 
runner to prepare the way of Jesus. He con- 
fessed: ''I am not the Christ. I baptize with 

ijohn X. 41. 2 Matt. xi. 2-6. 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 29 

water: in the midst of you standeth one whom ye 
know not, even he that cometh after me, the 
latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to un- 
loose."^ His less orbit and the larger orbit of 
our Lord intersected at the baptism of Jesus, and 
on two successive days when he said of him, 
^'Behold the Lamb of God!" In prison he did 
not lose faith; but he did not fully understand 
what was implicit in his own inspired testimony. 
His mission had been performed apart from the 
presence of Jesus. He had not enjoyed the priv- 
ilege of his company, of hearing his private and 
public talks, and of witnessing his works. He ac- 
knowledged the superior office of Jesus by sending 
to him for a settlement of the question which per- 
plexed his own mind. Prophecy in advance of 
fulfillment was obscure to him as to others. The 
point of his inquiry was whether this great and 
holy teacher was the one who should free and ex- 
alt Israel, or whether this office should be per- 
formed by another at a later day. He desired an 
answer to satisfy himself and his disciples. In 
like manner the disciples of our Lord never doubt- 
ed his truth, authority, and grace above all other 
men; their hearts clung loyally to him even while 

ijohn i. 20, 26, 27. 



30 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

he hung on the cross; yet when no rescue came, 
they were confused and benighted in regard to 
their hope that he should redeem Israel. 

None can question that Saul of Tarsus pos- 
sessed strength and keenness of intellect, culture, 
and knowledge of the letter of Scripture. Why 
did a miracle precede his conversion to the faith? 
Why did he not recognize in Jesus the fulfillment 
of prophecy, the light of the Gentiles, and the 
glory of his people Israel ? He did not need a se- 
ries of miracles to convince him; but why did he 
need even one? '^Suddenly there shone round 
about him a light out of heaven, and he heard a 
voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why perse- 
cutest thou me?" What need was there of that 
light surpassing the sun, of that voice sounding 
in his ear, when he had Moses and the prophets. 
He had a cataract of the eye. Pride blinded 
him, pride of his blood, religious knowledge, le- 
gal blamelessness, and Jewish zeal: pride, and 
its fruit of prejudice, bigotry, scorn, and hate. 
He could not listen to a word in favor of Jesus: 
blasphemy and accursed folly, to be cured by 
chains and death, he called it. The cataract ri- 
pened in the conviction that to put Christians to 
death was to serve God. The sudden supernatu- 
ral splendor and voice stilled his frenzy and 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 3 1 

abased his self-assertion. There came back to 
him somewhat of the child-heart, candid, hum- 
ble, teachable. With the purging of the eye, 
there poured into his mind light from the Scrip- 
tures, from what he had heard at the lips of the 
martyred Stephen, from what his own people had . 
reported of the words and acts of Jesus, from 
what he had witnessed of the spirit of the men 
and women he had so fiercely hated and wronged. 
He was in a new world. Hebrew story, worship, 
and prophecy were now illumined. Jesus was 
seen as the image and revealer of the Father, the 
Lord and Saviour not of a single people, but of 
the whole world ; Saviour not from the yoke of 
Csesar, but from the more galling yoke of Satan; 
not as a temporal ruler, but in the power of an 
endless life. 

The uniformity of nature is a beneficent ordi- 
nance of the Creator, who is immanent in the uni- 
verse, the ever-present and active cause of its sta- 
bility and orderly movement. But it is only a 
means; it cannot be exalted into an eternal or 
necessary principle. The sole immutability is the 
Lawgiver and the essential principles of righteous- 
ness. Truth, justice, and goodness are change- 
less in excellence and obligation. This cannot be 
affirmed of the laws of gases, liquids, and solids. 



32 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

Whether we say, according to the old formula, that 
the ax-head swam because God suspended in that 
instance the law of gravity, or, according to the 
modern explanation, that by an act of divine will 
the force of gravity was overcome, as when a man's 
hand upholds iron, no violence is done to reason. 
He who established the order for wise ends can 
vary it in his wisdom and power. God was before 
nature, and is in and above nature. This is the 
crucial question : What shall we trust as supreme 
and changeless, as the source and explanation of 
all things — nature, or the living God? 

Miracles and prophecy have ceased. We affirm 
this as a fact of observation. We have not satis- 
factory proof of miracles and inspired predictions 
in modern times. They are not incredible, but 
they are without sufficient evidence. Why have 
they ceased ? I suppose because they are unnec- 
essary, and would not be profitable. We live in 
the dispensation, not of types and shadows, but of 
truth, grace, and sonship. The Mediator sits 
upon the throne; the Spirit abides in the Church. 
Christianity is the creed of the most enlightened 
nations. Our people are born in a Christian at- 
mosphere, and brought up in Christian nurture. 
The volume of revelation is completed and closed; 
copies abound. »Schools, pulpits, and the press 



EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 33 

expound the true faith. Living examples of the 
beauty and power of divine grace move among us, 
bright and shining lights in an evil world. All 
eyes are attracted to Christianity. Its blessed ef- 
fects are conspicuous. Outsiders and unbelievers 
speak its praise. Christian missionaries, as teach- 
ers, physicians, and pastors, are commended to 
pagans by the renown of Christendom, by per- 
sonal superiority in wisdom, character, and happi- 
ness, and by disinterested service and sacrifice 
for the good of aliens and persecutors. We have 
strong external evidence in well-attested miracles 
before our era and in its first century, and in the 
fulfillment of prophecy in familiar history and be- 
fore our eyes. The internal evidence is full in 
the completed word, and to believers in the expe- 
rience of saving grace. What more is needed? 
3 



LECTURE 11. 



COMPARISON OF HEATHEN AND 
CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

(35) 



II. 

COMPARISON OF HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN 

EXPERIENCE. 

"\ )S rOULD it be overbold to claim that Christian 
^ ^ experience is only another name for Chris- 
tianity itself? What fitter definition of our reli- 
gion can we give than that it is faith, hope, and 
charity; loving God with all the heart, and our 
neighbor as ourself ; trusting and following Christ ; 
having the mind which was in him, consecration 
to our Lord, and the constraining power of his love 
on our spirit and conduct? If we accept this defi- 
nition, to every one who has the experience con- 
sciousness is a direct and full evidence of the truth 
of Christianity. 

To show that this is true in a substantial and 
important sense will be the aim of these lectures. 
But the identifying of Christianity and Christian 
experience must be qualified. Christianity is too 
vast and many-sided to be embraced in a single 
act of the mind, or in a single sentence. We need 
to view it from a number of standpoints, and thus 
catch sides or phases which differ, but do not con- 
flict. From one point we observe doctrinal Chris- 

(37) 



38 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

tianity: we may compare its teachings with Bud- 
dhism and other religions. It claims to be a body 
of facts, truths, and statutes, revealed from God 
through the tongues and pens of men whom he se- 
lected and inspired. It may be briefly designated 
as the word of God, the gospel, or the Bible. 
*'The Bible, the Bible, the religion of Protes- 
tants," is Chillingworth's terse, striking, and cel- 
ebrated saying, much criticised to-day even by 
some Protestants. I admire it. Not that any 
book is literally religion ; nor that Christianity did 
not exist until the New Testament, in whole or in 
part, had been written ; nor that the burning to 
ashes of all the Bibles in the world would be the 
destruction of our religion ; nor that all parts of 
the Bible are of equal sacredness and value— -the 
genealogies, for example, and the parables of our 
Lord. But that " Holy Scripture containeth all 
things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever 
is not read therein, nor may be proved thereb}^ is 
not to be required of any man, that it should be 
believed as an article of the faith, or be thought 
requisite or necessary to salvation."^ The Bible 
is the infallible and authoritative standard of faith 



1 Articles of Religion: *' V. Of the Sufficiency of the Holy 
Scriptures for Salvation." 



HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 39 

and practice : it declares what we should be and 
do in order to please God. 

A second point of view presents organic, insti- 
tutional Christianity. It is a system of forces, 
agents, and means, to preserve and extend the 
knowledge, acceptance, and practice of the Chris- 
tian religion. This phase may be denoted by the 
term, the Church; that is, the body of Christians, 
with their ministry, worship, obedience to the 
faith, schools, press, missions, and other institu- 
tions and activities. The view is essentially de- 
fective, if we see merely outward organization, 
measures, and methods, and take no account of 
'' the powers of the world to come," supernatural, 
invisible, divine energies, which ever work for, in, 
and through the visible Church : God the Father, 
the watchful and gracious Providence that guards, 
guides, and prospers his people; God the Son, 
Head over all things to the Church which is his 
body, our Propitiation and High Priest in heaven, 
and with us always unto the end of the world ; God 
the Holy Spirit, who gives edge and power to the 
word which is his sword, shaped and wielded by 
his hand, and who dwells in the hearts of believ- 
ers, a constant light, fire, and unction. 

A third standpoint is the historical. Christian- 
ity is a mighty movement, a world-era which had 



40 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

its birth at Pentecost, and is now closing its nine- 
teenth century. We see the Christian army, mo- 
biHzed, equipped, marching, batthng, not only on 
the defensive, but vigorously aggressive, victorious. 
We study the rise, progress, hindrances, achieve- 
ments of the Church. The near border of the 
twentieth century is a point of vantage from which 
to review the work and results of the gospel; how 
wide, deep, and strong has been its influence; 
whether it has been for good or ill; whether it 
waxes, or wanes; to measure Christendom, and 
compare it with the rest of the world; to estimate 
the roll, resources, obstacles, and prospects of the 
Church. There have been checks, defeats, and 
retreats, as well as advances and triumphs. There 
have been defects, blemishes, blots, matter for 
sorrow and shame. But the brightest pages of 
history record its deeds and success. Christian- 
ity is the best gift of God to men and the only 
hope of the world. There is abundant reason for 
thanksgiving, joy, courage, cheerful endurance, 
and exultant faith. The good of the race is the 
ever-increasing effect of the gospel, and the per- 
fection and universal spread of that good is the 
goal toward which, in sure hope, we press on. 

There is a fourth aspect of Christianity. It can- 
not be gotten from without, but only from within. 



HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 4I 

What we read is written on the heart, not with 
pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the Lord; it is 
learned, not from the testimony of others, but by 
individual consciousness; and yet this heart-writ- 
ten epistle may be known and read of all men. 
There is a knowledge from observation of saintly 
lives: there is a surer and better knowledge from 
personal experience. Vital, experimental, practi- 
cal Christianity is now under consideration. It 
is a divine spark kindled in the soul by the Spirit 
of holiness. It is a seed of life, and this life is 
hid with Christ in God. The source, the inner 
springs of this life are concealed from this world, 
but known to its happy possessor. The life is a 
unit in its essence, manifold in its manifestation, 
capable of great development, ripening into eternal 
life. The purpose for which Christ came into the 
world, the Spirit was poured forth, and the word 
is preached, is the communication of this spiritual 
life, and its continual growth and unfolding, that 
all who will may be presented perfect in Christ 
Jesus. 

These four meanings of Christianity are nei- 
ther inconsistent nor independent of one another. 
Severally they are partial and interdependent: to- 
gether they constitute the integer, the entity. The 
faith once delivered to the saints, the truth as it is 



42 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

in Jesus, the gospel which neither apostle nor an- 
gel can substitute by another, is a necessity to all 
Christian life, growth, and f ruitfulness : but all the 
Bibles and all the preachers on earth can neither 
constitute nor produce Christianity without recep- 
tive souls, fit soil for the seed. Christianity as a 
system of evangelizing agencies includes the in- 
spired word ; but the word can neither print nor 
preach itself: other parts of the system are re- 
quired for its circulation. The Christianity of to- 
day implies the Christianity of the first and suc- 
ceeding centuries from which it has come down to 
us. Historic Christianity, with all the prestige it 
has gained by its achievements through the ages, 
and with all its present strength in membership, 
organization, culture, and zeal, cannot make you a 
true Christian, unless you receive Christ by a per- 
sonal exercise of repentance and faith, and experi- 
ence the inner baptism of the Spirit and the renew- 
ing of your mind by his almighty power. Never- 
theless, this experience is closely connected with 
the use of the means of grace and with the com- 
munion of saints. We distinguish in thought con- 
stituent elements of Christianity which are insep- 
arable in fact, and detach now one, then another, 
for particular consideration, though we recognize 
their mutual relations and necessary coexistence 



HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 43 

as a unity. Each part or phase implies the other 
parts, as do breath, pulse, and digestion in phys- 
ical life; thought, sensibility, and volition in ration- 
al life; legislative, executive, and judicial func- 
tions in political life. 

The experimental side of religion is our study. 
What the flower is to the plant, what the fruit is to 
the tree, what the harvest is to the seed, expe- 
rience is to the Christian system. The glory of 
the gospel consists in this, that it is the power of 
God unto salvation. The word of God is truth, 
and the office of this truth is to sanctify, therein 
excelling all other kinds of truth. One plants, 
another waters, God gives the increase; and the 
increase is saved souls. ''For what is our hope, 
or joy, or crown of glorying? Are not even ye, 
before our Lord Jesus at his coming? For ye 
are our glory and our joy." ^ 

This is the end and reward not only of human 
ministry, but likewise of the mission of the Lord 
Jesus and of the Holy Spirit. In the long sen- 
tence which I will now quote, note three central 
words, ''He saved us." They are the key to the 
understanding of the whole plan of Christianity, 
as contained in the mind and purpose of God 

1 1 Thess. ii. 19, 20. 



44 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

from eternity, and revealed and made effective in 
the work of the Son and of the Spirit. ''But 
when the kindness of God our Saviour, and his 
love toward man, appeared [the reality belonged 
to the eternal order, the manifestation to a tem- 
poral], not by works done in righteousness, which 
we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he 
saved us, through the washing of regeneration and 
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he poured 
out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Sav- 
iour; that, being justified by his grace, we might 
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal 
life." ^ The fountain, or first cause, was the love 
and mercy in the heart of God; the exhibition 
and means were the incarnate Son of God and 
the rich outpouring of the Holy Ghost through 
Christ; the purpose and effect were the gracious, 
unmerited justification of believers, their spiritual 
renewal, and their heirship of eternal life. ''For 
by grace have ye been saved through faith ; and 
that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God : not 
of works, that no man should glory. "^ Salva- 
tion is a blessing bestowed, a work inwrought, an 
experience present, but not yet perfect except 
in promise and hope. In itself it is a fact of the 
deepest interest and importance which deserves 

"~ 1 Titus iii. 4-7. 2 Eph. ii. 8. 



HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 45 

our thought ; but my theme is Hmited to its place 
among the evidences of Christianity. To whom 
is it an evidence? Primarily, and in full force, 
to every one who possesses the experience, and to 
him only. Of what is it an evidence? Directly, 
with all the immediateness and certainty of con- 
sciousness, it is the evidence of itself; that is, of 
present salvation, of a new, spiritual, and divine 
life which he lives, a life in and unto Christ, a life 
of faith, love, fellowship with God, and hope of 
a heavenly inheritance. Questions arise which 
cannot be treated at this point. Admitting the 
reality of a certain experience, can we trust our 
interpretation of the data of consciousness? How 
can we pass from subjective experience to the ob- 
jective truth of the gospel? How can the knowl- 
edge of our own inward state give us the knowl- 
edge of Christ the Saviour? What weight should 
the testimony of men to their own experience have 
as proof to others ? 

There is a distinctive Christian experience, 
with definite marks by which it may be recog- 
nized. The child of God contrasts his present 
and his former states, the spiritual mind he now 
has and the carnal mind he once had. He dis- 
criminates between his religious life and the secu- 
lar life, animal, rational, and social, which is corn- 



46 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

mon to the regenerate and the unrenewed. These 
two lives are not separate and independent like 
streams which flow side by side without connec- 
tion; they mingle and affect each other without 
confusion, as light is interfused with all nature, 
and reflected from its many substances in a va- 
riety of hues. To instance, the taste of food and 
the satisfaction of hunger differ from the thank- 
fulness and temperance with which he eats and 
drinks, and from the spirit of consecration which 
does everything to the glory of God. This expe- 
rience is not a mere emotional excitement: it 
does stir more or less the emotions, but it con- 
sists of desires, affections, and aims which reach 
far below the surface, and remain steadfast amid 
fluctuations of feeling, like a sheet of water 
which may lie quiet and smooth as a polished mir- 
ror, or ripple in the breeze, or break into great 
billows in the gale, and yet is the same in sub- 
stance, bed, and contour. There are variants, 
types of character, idiosyncrasies, in the Church; 
in the same individual, there are changes affected 
by age and other circumstances. But there are 
also constants; qualities which characterize the 
children of God everywhere and always, the same 
in prosperous and adverse conditions, in the young 
convert and in the gray-haired veteran. 



HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 47 

Is religious experience confined to Christians? 
That we do not claim. Religion is a generic term; 
it is a world-wide feature of humanity. As far 
back as the light of history, however faint, can 
lead us, as far as the habitable globe has been ex- 
plored, we discover religious beliefs and customs. 
Corresponding to these faiths and forms are de- 
vout feelings. There is a common acknowledg- 
ment of supernaturalism, of occult superhuman 
powers that should be propitiated. There are 
common devotions, such as prayer, praise, and 
offerings. There are common emotions: awe, 
fear, hope, joy, desire to please their god or gods, 
gratitude for their favor, love and gladness, some- 
times displeasure and rebuke when those divinities 
have withheld their protection and blessing. 

There have been, and are, many religions. 
The ethnic or heathen religions are alike: scrip- 
tural religion is alone, and its full development is 
Christianity. There is a specific Christian expe- 
rience which in many points does not agree, but 
contrasts, with all other kinds of religious expe- 
rience, and, in those points which resemble, far 
transcends them in purity and degree. 

What are the factors of evangelical experience ? 
The Bible teaches, and the Church testifies, that 
God himself, dwelling in man, and working in him 



48 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

to will and to do, is the efficient cause of the ex- 
perience. God in us, Christ in us, the Holy Spirit 
in us, is the Source, the Creator of the new na- 
ture, not only at the crisis we call conversion, or 
the new birth, or the new creation, or the spiritual 
resurrection, but at every instant of its preserva- 
tion and development. Especially is this office 
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. We are born of God ; 
we are born of the Spirit. The Spirit convicts, 
enlightens, quickens, sanctifies, strengthens, seals. 
Every virtue is the fruit of the Spirit. 

The Spirit works through means: through the 
written and spoken word, the sacraments, wor- 
ship, the fellowship of believers. Most prominent 
is the word. It is the most comprehensive. The 
sacraments, songs, and supplications of the Church 
conform substantially and largely in language to 
the written word. In the parable of the sower 
and the seed, the word is the seed which brings 
forth the fruit, thirty, sixty, or a hundred fold. 
God and the word are often associated in Bible 
descriptions of Christian experience — God as the 
power, the word as the instrument. '' Of his own 
will he brought us forth by the word of truth. "^ 
*'And now I commend you to God, and to the 

1 James i. 18.. 



HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 49 

word of his grace, which is able to build you up, 
and to give you the inheritance among all them 
that are sanctified."^ If we are said to be born 
of the Spirit, we are also said to be born through 
the word. '^ Having been begotten again, not of 
x:orruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the 
word of God, which liveth and abideth."^ The 
dependence of the word on the Spirit to give it 
efficiency is taught. ^^How that our gospel came 
not unto you in word only, but also in power, and 
in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance."^ The 
gospel ''is the power of God unto salvation to ev- 
ery one that believeth." 

The peculiarity and excellence of Christian 
consciousness are due to the Holy Spirit, who in- 
spired and applies the word. The experience is 
unaccountable and impossible without the revela- 
tion. It could not be what it is, if the revelation 
were lacking or different. I do not affirm that 
God has not revealed himself in any manner to 
the heathen, or that he has withheld from them 
altogether his Spirit. Paul indeed declared at 
Lystra that God '' in the generations gone by suf- 
fered all the nations to walk in their own ways " ; ^ 
and at Athens, the center of the wisdom of man. 



lActs XX. 32. 2 J Pet. i. 23. 3 I Thess. i. 5. ^Acts xiv. 16. 

4 



50 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

yet full of idols and idolaters, " The times of ig- 
norance therefore God overlooked."^ We have 
very strong statements in Scripture of the abyss of 
folly, foulness, and fiendishness into which men 
sank, and having sunk hopelessly floundered, not 
only in savage lands, but also where power, phi- 
losophy, rhetoric, poetry, literature in prose, and 
art most flourished. History abundantly proves 
the truth of this accusation. Heathendom to-day 
presents the same revolting scenes. Let us not, 
however, overlook other statements of Holy Writ 
and of secular history, which relieve in a measure 
the dark and repulsive picture. The heathen are 
not now, and never were, outside the mercy and 
care of God; are not, and were not, universally 
or absolutely, stones, beasts, demons. No part of 
the world was forsaken of the Creator and Father, 
and left without a spark of divine light or a breath 
of the Holy Spirit. Total darkness and death did 
not entomb mankind. Man is, in a real and im- 
portant sense, a religious being. He is made for 
religion; his nature needs and craves it; his rea- 
son, conscience, and heart combine to require 
truth, righteousness, and communion with God as 
their satisfaction. The religions of the world, so 

^Acts xvii. 30. 



HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 5 1 

very defective, so very corrupt, have not been 
wholly a lie and a curse. I invite your attention 
to four quotations from the speeches and letters of 
Paul, which bear on this point. 

My first citation is from the fearful arraignment 
of the heathen world in the first chapter of his 
Epistle to the Romans. The object of the apos- 
tle is to prove from the condition of the whole 
race, first of the Gentiles, then of the Jews, that 
they needed the gospel of salvation in Christ. The 
gravamen of the guilt of the idolatrous, vile, un- 
just, and cruel nations lies in the fact that " they 
hold," as the Authorized Version translates, or 
'' hold down," as the Revision prefers, ^^the truth 
in unrighteousness; because that which may be 
known of God is manifest in them; for God man- 
ifested it unto them. For the invisible things of 
him since the creation of the world are clearly 
seen, being perceived through the things that are 
made, even his everlasting power and divinity; 
that they may be without excuse : because that, 
knowing God, they glorified him not as God, nei- 
ther gave thanks; but became vain in their rea- 
sonings, and their senseless heart was darkened." 
He closes the description of their image worship, 
debauchery, wickedness, and malice with this ag- 
gravating item: " Who, knowing the ordinance of 



52 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

God, that they which practice such things are 
worthy of death, not only do the same thing, but 
also consent with them that practice them." 

The second extract is from the apostle's address 
to the men of Lystra who would have offered sac- 
rifices to Barnabas as Jupiter and to Paul as Mer- 
cury. Immediately after stating that God had 
hitherto suffered all the nations to walk in their 
own ways, he added: -'And yet he left not him- 
self without witness, in that he did good, and gave 
you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling 
your hearts with food and gladness."^ 

The third passage is from the second chapter of 
the Epistle to the Romans. Paul is arguing that 
light measures responsibility; that not knowledge 
of the law, but obedience, justifies; that a Jew is 
approved or condemned as he follows, or violates, 
the law of God which was written on tables of 
stone; that a Gentile is innocent or guilty as he 
obeys, or transgresses, the law of God written on 
his heart. '' For when Gentiles which have no 
law do by nature the things of the law, these, hav- 
ing no law, are a law unto themselves; in that they 
show the work of the law written in their hearts, 
their conscience also bearing witness therewith, 

lActs xiv. 17. 



HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 53 

and their thoughts one with another accusing or 
else excusing them; in the day when God shall 
judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, 
by Jesus Christ."^ 

The fourth quotation is from the speech on 
Mars' Hill, or unto the Areopagus. He reasons 
with those men of Athens on the basis of what 
they know of the Creator of all things. Lord of 
heaven and earth, that they ought not to think of 
him as dwelling in temples made with hands, or as 
needing anything, '* seeing he giveth to all life, 
and breath, and all things.'' *^For in him welive, 
and move, and have our being; as certain even 
of your own poets have said, For we are also his 
offspring."^ 

Paul, therefore, mentions four revelations of 
God to all men. First, as Creator. This visible 
world and overhanging heaven, their stability and 
order, grace and beauty, majesty and grandeur, 
splendor and immensity, declare the uncreated, 
eternal glory of God, their Maker, Preserver, and 
Lord. Nature is a mirror in which he may be 
seen, an oracle by which he is continually pro- 
claimed. Next, as Providence. The light and 
warmth of the sun, the refreshing dews and show- 

iRom.ii. 14-16. 2j\^cts xvii. 28. 



54 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

ers, the fertile soil, the rich mines, the seas for a 
highway and bond of the nations, the succession 
of day and night and of the seasons, display the 
ceaseless presence and goodness of God. Nature 
is more than a magnificent spectacle, more than a 
psalm of praise to the All-wise and All-mighty: it 
is a storehouse of food, drink, clothing, shelter, 
fuel, and medicine, a supply for human needs, 
varied, bountiful, ever renewing itself; means not 
only to preserve and please the animal man, but 
also to stimulate, exercise, and gratify the rational 
and aesthetic powers. We sit down in God's 
house, walk forth in his gardens, eat at his table, 
warm ourselves at his fire, are refreshed by his 
breezes, inhale the perfumes of his shrubs and 
flowers, get healing at his pharmacy, rejoice in the 
bright and many-colored robe of light v\^hich is his 
flowing garment, lie down on the couch he spreads, 
and lose and yet restore ourselves in the balmy 
sleep with which he closes our eyes, while he stays 
near, and keeps watch over us. How then do we 
fail to discern God? Yet further, he reveals him- 
self as Righteousness: in conscience, an inner 
ethical light and susceptibility; a law of right and 
duty not cut into stone, nor written on papyrus, 
nor uttered by priest or prophet, nor decreed by 
emperors, nor codified by senates; a law written 



HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 55 

by God's own finger on each man's heart, wit- 
nessed by each man's consciousness, the standard 
by which he judges himself and others, and passes 
sentence of approval or condemnation on charac- 
ter and conduct as right or wrong, good or evil, 
praiseworthy or blameworthy. Men should rec- 
ognize in conscience a witness for God, and learn 
his holy and binding will, who is Most High, our 
Sovereign and our Judge. God has revealed him- 
self as the great Spirit and our Father: in that 
spirit which he breathed into man, thus distin- 
guishing him from involuntary, necessitated na- 
ture, contrasting him in his higher faculties with 
nature, exalting him above nature; in the great 
gifts of reason, will, conscience, and immortality; 
in the craving and capability for a grander good 
than the material universe can offer, or animal life 
can receive. This spirit in man, a divine spark, 
an image of God, should bow in worship before 
nothing of brightness, loftiness, or power, in earth 
beneath, or in all the expanse and magnificence of 
heaven above, and of the heaven of heavens, ex- 
cept the God who has life in himself, who is from 
everlasting to everlasting, who created all things, 
and upholds and guides them by his power, as 
signs of his boundless, perfect, and unchanging 
wisdom, might, and love. Men who carry within 



56 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

them evidence of their high descent as sons of the 
living God, a truth which some of their own poets 
had sung, ought not to think so meanly of their 
Supreme Father, God over all, blessed forever, as 
to liken him to images of gold, or silver, or stone, 
whether grotesque, or as shapely and stately as art 
of man can make them; ought not to think that he 
needed service of human hands, or presents of hu- 
man wealth, who is the fountain of all being and 
of all life. 

There is in every man a ray, it may be slender 
and dim, of the true Light; there are whispers, 
they may be low and faint, of the Voice which 
spake out of the fire on Sinai, and later on the 
mount of Palestine and the cross of Calvarv. We 
can discover in fallen man', amid much rubbish 
and baseness, disorderly fragments of the divine 
likeness which he received at creation. There are 
hints of immortality in the persistence with which 
he lingers at the grave, straining his eyes to pierce 
the dense darkness, listening with bated breath to 
catch response to his questions out of the deep si- 
lence, refusing to be satisfied with time and to 
surrender the future to despair, waiting, ever wait- 
ing, for a vision and a message from the beyond. 
There are stirrings of conscience, utterances of a 
more sacred and authoritative oracle than any 



HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 57 

code of earthly wisdom or prerogative, a law firm- 
er than the foundations of the world and the pil- 
lars of heaven. There is an inner discord and 
war, the lusts of the fxesh, the passions of the 
heart, and the proud stubbornness of the will, 
striking against a divine imperative which they 
cannot shake, breaking and foaming like billows 
that beat upon the shore. There are vague shad- 
owings in his mind of an ideal goodness and great- 
ness, better than the best and greater than the 
greatest he has ever seen among his fellows; shad- 
ows that do not stay fixed and defined for his 
study, but flit and vanish, yet return again and 
again, keeping alive discontent with his own heart 
and aspiration after change into a purer, nobler, 
worthier self. There are blind, restless, disap- 
pointed gropings after God, if possibly the out- 
stretched hands, the unsatisfied yearnings, may 
find him. And shall I not add that not wholly 
vain are these longings and struggles after wisdom, 
holiness, peace, and God? 

This may be thought a rose-tinted picture of 
heathenism. We should beware, indeed, of con- 
founding possible with actual pagan experience. 
Israel did not live up to their light and calling; 
Christendom has not lived up to the light and 
grace of the glorious gospel; Paul tells us that 



S8 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

the Gentiles did not live up to their light and priv- 
ileges. The life often contradicts the creed. The 
nations to whom God did not send a written rev- 
elation, nor a line of prophets, served their own 
lusts and passions, instead of heeding the law 
of righteousness written in their hearts and 
cherishing the better feelings which the good 
Spirit stirred within them. This was their guilt. 
They suffered the penalty in condemning con- 
science, and also in the blinding of their minds 
and the hardening of their hearts. ''And even 
as they refused to have God in their knowledge, 
God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do 
those things which are not fitting." Neglect 
and violation of known duty impair the moral 
sense, and fasten more tightly the chains of 
sin. They deified and worshiped men, birds, 
beasts, reptiles, stocks, stones. Their chosen 
gods were even examples and patrons of lying, 
theft, injustice, drunkenness, unchastity, and cru- 
elty. Their religious feasts and rites were oft- 
times orgies of sensuality and malignant pas- 
sions, foul and frantic. This is matter of history. 
Full responsibility for this deep-seated, wide- 
spread corruption did not rest upon them as indi- 
viduals. The great law of heredity and solidarity 
must be added to the law of personal freedom and 



HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 59 

accountability, in explaining the moral state of any 
nation and age. Men were born into darkness, 
defilement, and barbarism, the consequence of the 
wickedness of preceding generations; as we were 
born into the light and blessed influence of Chris- 
tian civilization in this America and nineteenth 
century. God is wise, just, and merciful; he re- 
quires of each man according to what has been 
given him. I would not exaggerate the virtues of 
our people, much less boast of them. Sin abounds 
in this land — vice, crime, meanness, deadly hate, 
impiety; sin disguised and hypocritical, and sin 
open and flagrant and blasphemous; sin in high 
places and low places; sin in its nakedness among 
the rude, and sin in its pomp and glitter amid the 
circles of wealth and fashion. There is guilt in 
the measure of enlightenment and religious advan- 
tages; there is, in addition, a hardness, as of flint 
or steel, from habitual resistance to the truth and 
to the Spirit, a willful overcoming of the most sa- 
cred and powerful motives to a good life, such as 
is not found in less favored countries. Burns tells 
us as a plea for mercy in our judgment of the 
sinner. 

What's done we partly may compute, 
But never what's resisted. 

Alas! what faithful instruction, warning, and 



6o EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

entreaty, what wealth of divine love and promises, 
what godly examples and pleadings of affection, 
what clear and strong convictions of duty, are re- 
sisted and overcome by multitudes of our people 
in their self-will and wantonness — all this exceeds 
computation. Nevertheless, we have cause to re- 
joice and give thanks continually for the evident 
work which the gospel of the grace of God has 
wrought among us; for a sound public sentiment 
and the wide prevalence of good morals and kind 
feeling; for the lessons in favor of righteousness 
and virtue which are taught in our homes, schools, 
press, literature, and popular addresses, and the 
respect which is paid to the institutions and oper- 
ations of Christianity by non-professors; for the 
large number of men and women who endeavor to 
walk by the rule of the gospel, and the smaller, 
and yet considerable, number in every part of 
these states who are patterns of piety and good 
works, wholly consecrated to the glory of God 
and the uplifting of humanity, shining illustra- 
tions of the practical religion which corresponds 
to the experimental religion that is their real life. 

Heathenism in ancient times and in our own 
day differs far from this Christian culture so fa- 
miliar to us. Paul proves by the corruption of 
the Gentile world the necessity that the gospel 



HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 6l 

should be sent to them in its saving power. Yet 
his own language shows that light was not utterly 
quenched, that conscience was not utterly de- 
stroyed, that the heathen were not utterly dehu- 
manized, bestialized, demonized. Some nations, 
by inquiry after truth, and effort after virtue, 
advanced much farther than others in religious 
sentiment, ideals, and practices. Some individ- 
uals rose far above their fellow -citizens. Not 
all of those who surpassed their own generation 
in moral wisdom and character are named in 
history. Doubtless there were in humble life, 
and in ages and lands whose annals have not 
come down to us, instances of men and wom- 
en w^ho feared God according to their light, con- 
trolled their appetites by the law of temper- 
ance, dealt justly and kindly with their neigh- 
bors, and were gentle and affectionate in their 
families. As instances of religious knowledge 
and experience outside the line of Abraham, I 
will mention from the Scriptures Melchizedek, 
king of Salem and priest of the Most High God ; 
the two Abimelechs, kings who were frank, just, 
and generous in their dealings wdth Abraham and 
Isaac; Jethro, priest of Midian, father-in-law of 
Moses; Balaam, a prophet, covetous, self-seek- 
ing, prostituting great gifts to mean ends, who 



62 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

nevertheless spoke the word of Jehovah; Hiram, 
king of Tyre, a magnanimous friend to Solomon, 
who gave great aid to the building of the temple ; 
the widow of Sarepta, a city of Zidon, who shared 
her scant store of meal and oil in the famine with 
Elijah ; and Cyrus, king of Persia. From the 
New Testament I instance the woman of Canaan 
and the Roman centurion, each of whom was 
praised by Jesus for great faith; the other centu- 
rion, Cornelius, "a, devout man, one that feared 
God with all his house, who gave much alms to 
the people, and prayed to God alway"; and 
Lydia, the seller of purple in Ephesus. Outside 
the Bible, I will mention Zoroaster the Persian, 
Confucius of China, Gautama of India, Socrates 
and Plato of Greece, the Phrygian slave Epicte- 
tus, and the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius; 
of religions, Parseeism and Buddhism; of moral 
philosophies. Stoicism. 

The peculiarity which I claim for Christian 
consciousness does not deny, nor despise, there- 
fore, other forms of religious experience. The 
world outside of Christendom has not been left in 
total darkness, nor untouched by the Holy Spirit. 
The race has its unity not only in the first Adam, 
but much more in the one Father, Redeemer, and 
Sanctifier. **He made of one every nation of 



HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 63 

men to dwell on all the face of the earth, that they 
should seek God, if haply they might feel after 
him, and find him, though he is not far from each 
one of us." ^ The worship which the heathen ob- 
serve and their inner responsive sentiments are of 
interest as evidence of their capacity to embrace 
the gospel, and as a preparation for its reception. 
Missionaries have not the impossible task of cre- 
ating moral and devout faculties and susceptibili- 
ties. They soon detect in what seemed a spirit- 
ual corpse a tremor, a pulse of life ; they are en- 
couraged by hearing from a few, at least, heart- 
cries after God. They rejoice to find that the 
common humanity w^hich is a tie between the 
teacher and the taught includes a common 
sonship of God. But I do mean to affirm that 
their light, even if faithfully cherished and fol- 
lowed, can never lead them into an experience 
worthy to be compared with what may be real- 
ized, and in countless cases has been realized, 
under the gospel. In nonchristian countries re- 
ligion, as an inner, conscious life, has alwa3"S 
been, and must always be, shallow, meager, and 
low, in comparison with Christian attainments. 
This follows of necessity from the transcendent 

1 Acts xvii. 26, 27. 



64 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

clearness, certainty, purity, fullness, grace, and 
glory of the Christian revelation, with all that it 
implies. The truth as it is in Jesus, and it alone, 
furnishes a basis for the rich, holy, joyous, tri- 
umphant experience which the word of the Lord 
describes, and believers enjoy. The inspired vol- 
ume determines the quality and range of evangel- 
ical experience. 

Let me illustrate by a secular virtue, patriotism. 
Love of country is natural and universal. It exists 
in the least favored lands and among the rudest 
people. There have been pathetic, thrilling, and 
heroic manifestations of it in depths of poverty 
and ages of barbarism. But rational and whole- 
hearted patriotism flourishes best, has widest scope 
and strongest motive, in a land of grand mountain 
ranges, lovely valleys, and fertile plains, whose 
shores are washed by great seas, whose fields are 
watered by noble streams, which is rich in mines 
and woods; a land with a long, eventful, and glo- 
rious history of the achievements of war and peace, 
and a lustrous line of soldiers and sailors, of states- 
men, sages, scholars, and saints, and of writers of 
prose and song; a land of liberty and order, of 
stability and progress; a land, above all, of a 
brave, intelligent, virtuous, enterprising, and gen- 
erous people. In like manner, religion is an in- 



HEATHEN AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 65 

stinctive and universal sentiment and impulse. It 
touches the heart of the besotted savage; it is 
manifested in the lowest fetich worship ; it arouses 
pagans to bravery and endurance by jealousy for 
the honor of their gods and confidence in their 
protecting care; it sometimes shows devotion by 
feasting to gluttony, drinking to drunkenness, wal- 
lowing in shameless licentiousness, and yelling in 
frenzy, until so crazed by excitement, and carried 
away from all reason and right feeling, that they in- 
flict wounds, each man upon himself, or upon his 
companions and friends. There was plainly lack- 
ing in such worshipers the knowledge of God, or 
the righteousness and goodness which he demands 
and in which alone he delights, of the dignity and 
worth of the human soul, and of spiritual and eter- 
nal life, which is necessary to quicken conscience, 
restrain carnal lusts and fiendish tempers, mellow, 
purify, and ennoble heart and conduct, and inspire 
lofty motives and aims. Their thoughts were low, 
poor, and dull, and furnished no support, no back- 
ground, for a rich and high experience. 

To pass from such scenes into a Christian land 
resembles the transition from the Arctic zone, with 
its few stunted and colorless forms of life, into 
temperate and tropical climes, with their luxuri- 
ance of vegetable life — forests, fruit trees, vines^ 
5 



66 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

grasses, grains, and flowers of every hue, from a 
delicate blue to purple and scarlet. What makes 
the difference? The gospel of the Son of God. 
''Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall 
make you free." The Dayspring from on high 
has visited us, to shine upon them that sit in dark- 
ness and the shadow of death; to guide our feet 
into the way of peace. The revelation of God in 
Christ is sufficient warrant for the holiest and hap- 
piest experience. 



LECTURE III. 



COMPARISON OF ISRAELITE AND 
CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

(67) 



III. 

COMPARISON OF ISRAELITE AND CHRISTIAN 

EXPERIENCE, 

T3ELIGION, in its twofold form as faith and 
^ ^ experience, is a fact as old and wide as the 
race, having its roots in the constitution of the soul 
and in the presence and working of God in the ma- 
terial universe and in the human soul. If this be 
so, ''what advantage then hath the Jew? or what is 
the profit of circumcision ? Much every way: first 
of all, that they were intrusted with the oracles of 
God." It pleased God in his infinite wisdom to 
commit to the Hebrew people, in addition to his 
self-revelation in nature and in conscience which 
they shared with other nations, his Holy Word, 
the revelation of himself by the mouths and pens 
of prophets whom he chose, called, and inspired. 
The Hebrew Scriptures sustain a relation to the 
gospel radically different from that of the Vedas of 
Brahmanism and all other writings which Gentiles 
have held sacred. The Old Testament, or Cove- 
nant, was, in an important sense hereafter to be qual- 
ified, the kernel out of which the New Testament 

developed. There exists between the two revela- 

(69) 



70 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

tions far more than resemblance ; it is rather identity 
in essence, with diversity in form and measure. 

A distinction should here be noted. The Old 
Testament contains luminous and explicit state- 
ments of fundamental truths of revealed religion. 
These portions do not need to be supplemented or 
interpreted ; they shine by their own light. First 
and all-embracing is the teaching concerning God. 
From the opening chapter of Genesis to the closing 
of Malachi, the book is strictly and consistently 
monotheistic. ^'The world by its wisdom knew 
not God.'' Greek philosophy and Roman law 
continue to this day the study and admiration of 
all thinkers. Yet Paul found Athens full of idols. 
Rome had shrines and images of many gods and 
goddesses, and in addition a Pantheon, that the 
imperial city might be known as the patron and 
favorite of all the deities, a countless number, that 
were worshiped in the world over which she ruled, 
and by the various peoples represented in her pop- 
ulation. Clear and strong rang forth at the base 
of Sinai these simple, sublime words: ''Hear, O 
Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord: and thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, 
and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." 
Hezekiah said: ''O Lord, the God of Israel, thou 
art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms 



ISRAELITE AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 7 1 

of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth." 
Jehovah, the I Am, was alone in his sovereignty 
and glory; there was none to equal, rival, or 
share. The first *'word" of the decalogue set 
forth his unity, the second his spirituality in oppo- 
sition to all matter and form: *'Thou shalt not 
make unto thee a graven image, nor the likeness 
of any form that is in heaven above, or that is in 
the earth beneath, or that is in the water under 
the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto 
them, nor serve them." All idols are pronounced 
vanity and lies, the work of men's hands and 
fancy. All excellences, without limit or stain, are 
ascribed to God. From everlasting to everlasting 
he is God. There is no flight or hiding from his 
presence: he fills heaven and earth, and the dark- 
ness and the light are alike to him. He is God 
Almighty. He searcheth all hearts, and under- 
standeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. 

The moral perfections of God are stressed. 
'' Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful 
in praises, doing wonders?"^ ''The Rock, his 
work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a 
God of faithfulness, and without iniquity, just and 
right is he." ' '' The Lord, the Lord, a God full 



lEx. XV. II. 2 j)eut. xxxii. 4. 



72 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

of compassion, and gracious, slow to anger, and 
plenteous in mercy and truth." ^ 

God is proclaimed as Creator, Preserver, and 
King over all nature, all nations, all worlds. 
''Thou art the Lord, even thou alone; thou hast 
made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their 
host, the earth and all things that are therein, the 
seas, and all that is in them, and thou preservest 
them all; and the host of heaven worshipeth thee." ^ 
''Which stilleth the roaring of the seas, the roar- 
ing of their waves, and the tumult of the people. 
Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and of 
the evening to rejoice. Thou crownest the year 
with thy goodness." ^ " Thou turnest man to de- 
struction."^ " But let him that glorieth glory in 
this, that he understandeth, and knoweth me, that 
I am the Lord which exerciseth loving-kindness, 
judgment, and righteousness, in the earth; for in 
these things I delight."^ 

The breadth and height of the divine law are 
noteworthy. Psalm xv. describes the man who 
shall dwell with God: he that walketh uprightly, 
worketh righteousness, speaketh the truth in his 
heart; slandereth not with his tongue, nor doeth 
evil to his friend, nor taketh up a reproach against 

lEx.xxxiv. 6. 2Neh. ix. 6. sps. Ixv.y, 8, ii. ^Ps. xc. 3. ^Jer. ix. 24. 



ISRAELITE AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 73 

his neighbor; in whose eyes a reprobate is de- 
spised, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord; 
he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not ; 
he that putteth not out his money to usury, nor 
taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth 
these things shall never be moved. Personal pu- 
rity, and positive goodness, such as considering 
the poor and the fatherless, are also required. 

Not less holy and elevated is the worship which 
the Old Testament prescribed. Ceremonies did 
not rank with righteousness. " Hath the Lord as 
great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in 
obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey 
is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the 
fat of rams."^ " Wherewith shall I come before 
the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? 
shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with 
calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased 
with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of 
rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my 
transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of 
my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is 
good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, 
but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk 
humbly with thy God?" ^ 

1 1 Sam. XV. 22. 2 Micah vi. 6-8. 



74 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. • 

These and many like passages are so familiar 
that to repeat them may seem superfluous and tire- 
some. I seek to remind you that they are in sub- 
stance the same teaching which we find in the Gos- 
pels and Epistles, and that they are sunbright. 
Wonderful it is that one small country enjoyed 
this splendor of revelation through centuries of re- 
ligious ignorance, superstition, and idolatry which 
covered the great world, near and far off, with a 
night of blackness. The direct argument from 
this surpassing manifestation of truth, truth which 
commends itself to the reason and conscience, 
does not belong to the scope of my theme. But 
it appears to me proper to present this meager 
outline of Hebrew doctrine as a preface to the 
consideration of Hebrew experience, which is 
more than akin to Christian experience, and ex- 
cels the best ethnic experience, for the reason and 
in the proportion that their Scriptures excel the 
writings of heathenism. 

But running through the Old Testament from 
its first pages to the end is another element, large 
and prominent, which, though rich in hope and 
comfort, was comparatively obscure and vague. 
It increased, however, in clearness and definite- 
ness, as the fullness of time for the incarnation of 
the Son of God approached. It was the anticipa- 



ISRAELITE AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 75 

tion of the gospel. Its symbols have become real- 
ity, its predictions history, its promise fulfillment. 
Abraham said, ^' My son, God will provide him- 
self the lamb for a burnt offering." John the 
Baptist saw Jesus coming unto him, and said, 
" Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away 
the sin of the world ! " Noah, when he went forth 
from the ark upon the dried earth, ''builded an 
altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean 
beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt 
offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled the 
sweet savor. "^ ^'Even as Christ also loved 5^ou, 
and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sac- 
rifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell. "^ The 
lamb and burnt offerings were not images, but 
only shadow^s, of the one true sacrifice. '' It shall 
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel," 
was a mysterious hint of final deliverance from the 
power of Satan through the victorious Son of man, 
that awakened hope at the moment of despair. 
Many prophecies followed, singly or in clusters, 
until the firmament glowxd with stars of various 
size from horizon to zenith. The Psalms and the 
Prophets are largely Messianic. Along with the 
promise of Christ there were foretold the call of 

^Gen. viii. 20, 21. ^Eph. v. 2. 



76 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

the Gentiles, and the establishment, progress, and 
triumph of the Church. The eyes of Israel were 
turned to the future, how distant they knew not, 
when the Messiah, the Redeemer, should come, 
and reign; as our eyes turn to his second advent 
at the end of the ages. Their experience was in 
large measure a longing and a hope which are real- 
ized in believers. The Christ rebuked the Jews of 
his day for not heeding the testimony of their own 
Scriptures to him. '^ Ye have not his word abiding 
in you." They had the written roll; it was their 
boast; it was on their tongues: but it was not in 
their hearts ; they did not pierce into its meaning 
nor catch its spirit. ^^ Ye search the Scripture," 
or, Search the Scriptures, ^^ because ye think that 
in them ye have eternal life ; and these are they 
which bear witness of me ; and ye will not come 
to me, that ye may have life " ; as though a thirsty 
man should cling to a signpost, instead of hasten- 
ing to the living spring to which the hand point- 
ed. ''For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe 
me; for he wrote of me."^ The rejection of Je- 
sus was virtually the rejection of Moses, David, 
and Isaiah, his witnesses. 

I would show those great and lofty truths as 

ijohn V, 38-40, 46. 



ISRAELITE AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 77 

they were written on the hearts of genuine Israel- 
ites, as they were translated into living experience ; 
as the thoughts, feelings, and purposes which 
filled their souls were woven into uniform habit 
and fixed character; and as rules and motives 
which shaped their conduct. The Old Testa- 
ment is largely biographical. But the inmost life 
comes forth more fully and vividly in the Psalms 
and prophetical books than in the historical. 
Holy men poured out their souls in confessions, 
thanksgivings, praises, vows, and prayers to God, 
and in admonitions, pleadings, and encourage- 
ments to the elect, but often sinful and stricken, 
people. Some salient features of their godly ex- 
perience I will note. Their sincerity and depth 
of feeling cannot be questioned: out of the heart 
the words burst forth. I would not have you read 
into their language sentiments which you really 
draw from the evangelists and apostles. Not 
what the words mean to us who live in the larger 
and intenser light of Christianity, but what they 
meant to the men by whom they were uttered, is 
the matter to be considered. Take the natural, 
unforced sense. The quotations I shall make are 
not exceptional, rare jewels that sparkle in a vast 
bed of common earth and gravel, but selections 
from a profuse w^ealth of like passages. Your ac- 



78 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

quaintance with the Scriptures will verify this 
statement. 

Depth and thoroughness of repentance have 
never had stronger expression than in Psalm li. 
Notice these points: i. The psalmist's confession 
of sin against and before God. ^'Against thee, 
thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy 
sight." 2. His profound and abiding sense of 
guilt. ** My sin is ever before me." 3. His sole 
plea was the boundless mercy of God. '^Have 
mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lov- 
ing-kindness: according to the multitude of thy 
tender mercies blot out my transgressions." 4. 
He makes no allusion to outward penalties, but 
deprecates the withdrawal of God's manifest 
presence and gracious influence. ''Cast me not 
away from thy presence ; and take not thy holy 
spirit from me." The Revised Version prints 
holy spirit without capital letters to indicate that 
the psalmist meant simply the working of God on 
the heart, not referring, as we should in such lan- 
guage, to the Holy Ghost, the third person of the 
Godhead. 5. He prayed not less earnestly for a 
changed, sanctified heart than for the forgiveness 
of sins. ''Create in me a clean heart, O God; 
and renew a right spirit within me." "And up- 
hold me with a free spirit." 6. He brought to 



ISRAELITE AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 79 

God no animal sacrifices, but contrition and long- 
ing to experience the joy of salvation, that he 
might out of a glad and thankful heart praise di- 
vine righteousness and grace. *'The sacrifices 
of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a con- 
trite heart, O God, thou v^ilt not despise." *' Thou 
God of my salvation." **My tongue shall sing 
aloud of thy righteousness." ^^O Lord, open 
thou my lips ; and my mouth shall show forth thy 
praise." 

Psalm xxxii. is a companion song to li. It de- 
scribes the blessedness of pardon as a realized 
good. For a time the psalmist had kept silence. 
Then his bones waxed old; day and night God's 
hand was heavy upon him ; his soul withered like 
a plant during a summer drought. Afterwards 
his sullen silence was broken by a frank confes- 
sion of his transgressions unto the Lord: '^And 
thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." **Thou 
art my hiding place." '*Be glad in the Lord, 
and rejoice, ye righteous; and shout for joy, all 
ye that are upright in heart." 

Those two songs have a Hebrew coloring, but 
an evangelical spirit. The sinner bowed before 
God in deep humiliation, convicted of sin and of 
its exceeding sinfulness, crushed under the load 
of guilt, filled with self-loathing, stripped of all 



So EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

excuses, pouring out confession without guile or 
concealment, though in shame and sorrow, seek- 
ing refuge in the measureless mercies of the God 
he had offended; then the penitent assured of 
pardon and acceptance, telling the story to the 
praise of divine grace and to the comfort of all 
who groan under sin, and would find deliverance, 
and calling on all the upright in heart to join in 
joyous songs and shouts because of the riches of 
the divine goodness. How often this experience 
has been repeated in the home and in the congre- 
gation down to the present day ! The twin Psalms 
are not doctrinal, though in accord with the the- 
ology of both Testaments; they are the outgush- 
ing of a full heart, full first of the bitterness, un- 
rest, and agony of repentance, and then of the 
sweet peace and rapturous joy of the knowledge 
that God had blotted out all his iniquities, and 
washed his soul whiter than snow. 

Observe the attitude of the genuine Israelite 
toward the law of God. That long and peculiar 
Psalm, cxix., dwells with loving variation and repe- 
tition on the excellence of the law and the heart's 
response to all its commandments. *' Blessed are 
they that are perfect in the way, who walk in the 
law of the Lord." Where did he keep this price- 
less treasure which he loved above gold? "Thy 



ISRAELITE AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 8l 

word have I laid up in my heart, that I might 
not sin against thee.'' It was a lamp unto his 
feet, his delight and his counselor. ^'O how I 
love thy law! It is my meditation all the day." 
" How sweet are thy words unto my taste ! " He 
prayed for what we would call the office of the 
Holy Spirit in illumining his mind to understand 
and inclining his heart to keep the law. ^'Open 
thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous 
things out of thy law. Incline my heart unto thy 
testimonies." 

Not to all Israel at any time did the words of our 
Lord and of Isaiah apply: ^^ Ye hypocrites, well 
did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people 
honoreth me with their lips ; but their heart is far 
from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching 
as their doctrines the precepts of men."^ There 
w^ere devout men who delighted in spiritual wor- 
ship. " I was glad when they said unto me, Let 
us go into the house of the Lord."^ Instead of 
gladness, there was intense craving when cut off 
from the sanctuary. ^'O God, thou art my God; 
early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, 
in a dry and weary land, where no water is. So 
have I looked upon thee in the sanctuary, to see 

^Matt. XV. 7-9. 2Ps. cxxii. i. 



82 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE, 

thy power and thy glory. For th}^ loving-kindness 
is better than life; my lips shall praise thee."^ 
Was worship limited by place, time, the ministry 
of a priesthood, the presence of a congregation, 
and external rites? The same Psalm proves that 
it was often the secret and solitary communion of 
the heart with God: *'My soul shall be satisfied 
as with marrow and fatness ; and my mouth shall 
praise thee with joyful lips; when I remember 
thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the 
night watches. For thou hast been my help, and 
in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My 
soul foUoweth hard after thee: thy right hand 
upholdeth me."^ 

Thanksgiving and praise, public and private, 
were features of their worship as of ours. Psalm 
ciii. is a favorite with all Christians. '' Bless the 
Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless 
his holy name." There follows a comprehensive 
enumeration of his benefits, and praise of their 
source, the fullness of his compassion and gra- 
ciousness, who is slow to anger, and plenteous in 
mercy. ^'For as the heaven is high above the 
earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear 
him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath 

1 Ps. Ixiii. 1-3. 2 Ps. ixiii. 5-8. 



ISRAELITE AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 83 

he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a 
father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them 
that fear him." 

Trust in God, peace and joy as the fruit of faith, 
and actual experience of guidance, protection, and 
abundant provision from God, were marked char- 
acteristics of the saints of the Old Testament. I 
need only to remind you of Psalm xxiii. : ''The 
Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want." 

The religion which rose on buoyant wings of 
gratitude and adoration to the Fount of all good, 
bowed in humble and reverent submission under 
calamity. With rent mantle and shaved head. Job 
fell down upon the ground and worshiped, saying, 
'' The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; 
blessed be the name of the Lord. ' ' ^ Jeremiah was 
the weeping prophet; he wrote the Lamentations. 
From that sad strain let me quote: ''It is of the 
Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because 
his compassions fail not. They are new every 
morning; great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is 
my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope 
in him." 2 Overwhelmed by waves of wrath, sore- 
ly perplexed by the mystery of the wicked who 
prospered and of the godly who were oppressed, 

1 Job i. 21. 2 Lam. iii. 22-24. 



84 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

the servant of the Lord found refuge and triumph 
in faith, resignation, and hope in God. " Why 
art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art 
thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: 
for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my 
countenance, and my God." ^ " Thou shalt guide 
me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to 
glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And 
there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. 
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the 
strength of my heart, and my portion forever."^ 

Love for the people of God, grief over their 
afflictions, and longing for their salvation and spir- 
itual glory, were conspicuous marks of pious He- 
brews. ''For Zion's sake will I not hold my 
peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, 
until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and 
her salvation as a lamp that burneth." ^ 

God himself was the center of desire and de- 
light. ''As the hart panteth after the water 
brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. 
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God."* 
They looked to him for temporal good, but also 
for grace to resist sin and lead holy lives. '' Teach 



iPs. xlii. II. sisa. Ixii. i. 

2 Ps. Ixxiii. 24-26. ^ps.xlii. 1,2. 



ISRAELITE AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 85 

me to do thy will."^ " Search me, O God, and 
know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 
and see if there be any way of wickedness in me, 
and lead me in the way everlasting." ^ Not only 
was love to God the chief command, but likewise 
the chief inward trait and motive. "I love thee, 
O Lord, my strength."^ '^O love the Lord, all 
ye his saints."^ ''I love the Lord, because he 
hath heard my voice and my supplications." ^'^ 

These passages witness to heartfelt religion; 
to a reality and a consciousness sound, whole- 
some, purifying, exalting. Those men were men 
of God. Religion was not to them an incident, a 
fashion, an occasional wave of feeling, nor a 
compliance with custom : it was the core of char- 
acter, the constraining force of conduct. It was 
ethical: right, not rites, was the main thing. It 
was sincere and spiritual; not outward show, but 
life in the felt presence and under the eyes of 
God who tries the thoughts. It was drawn from 
God, sustained by God, directed to the glory of 
God. They knew the truth and strength of their 
own devotedness to God, his service, and his peo- 
ple; and they knew that God was with and in 



iPs. cxliii. 10. ^Ps. xviii. 1. 

2Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24. 4 Ps.xxxi. 23. ^ Ps. cxvi. i. 



86 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

them. His mercies compassed them, his hand 
led them, his eyes were on them, his ears were 
open to their cry, he was afflicted in their afflic- 
tion, his spirit taught and hallowed them. 

Am I claiming for them Christian experience? 
In no other sense than that in which Paul affirmed 
that God preached the gospel beforehand to 
Abraham : the patriarch heard from the mouth of 
Jehovah the pregnant promise, ^' In thee shall all 
the nations be blessed," before the shepherds 
heard the angels' song, *' Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth peace among men in whom 
he is well pleased." The primitive Christians 
were encircled by a great cloud of witnesses to 
the faith. The objective faith was the same, the 
truth which is Christ the Saviour. The subjective 
faith was the same, the self-surrender and trust of 
the heart. The fruit was the same, righteous- 
ness, peace, and joy in the Lord. Abel was the 
prototype of Stephen: martyrs to the one faith, 
they received their crowns from the hand of the 
same Lord. , 

I am not contending that this high experience 
was possessed by the whole body of Isaelites. 
'' For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel." 
A godly seed never ceased, but often it was a 
very small minority. Nor did all sincere Israel- 



ISRAELITE AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 87 

ites attain unto the vision and elevation of Moses, 
Elijah, and Isaiah; as in our favored era few be- 
lievers equal John and Paul in wisdom and zeal. 
We may err, however, by underrating the number 
of the faithful under the old dispensation, as Eli- 
jah erred in supposing that he stood alone for Je- 
hovah in his idolatrous generation : Jehovah who 
knows all that are his marked seven thousand that 
had not bowed the knee to Baal. The flame of 
faith and devotion ofttimes burns in the breasts of 
obscure men and women. In the dark age of un- 
believing Sadducees and haughty, formal Phari- 
sees, when Jesus was born, the priest Zacharias 
and his wife Elizabeth were righteous before God, 
walking in all the commandments and ordinances 
of the Lord blameless. Simeon was righteous 
and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; 
Anna, a prophetess, gave thanks unto God, and 
spake of the infant Jesus to all them that were 
looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. Our 
Lord, who knew what was in man, characterized 
Nathanael, as he came to him on the invitation of 
Philip, in these strong words: ^'Behold, an Is- 
raelite indeed, in whom is no guile." Paul un- 
folds the signifiance of the qualifjdng word indeed: 
'^For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; 
neither is that circumcision which is outward in 



88 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

the flesh: but he is a Jew which is one inwardly; 
and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, 
not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but 
of God."^ Was this distinction between the sign 
and the thing signified, between carnal and spirit- 
vial circumcision, reserved until the gospel? Lis- 
ten to Moses: ^'And the Lord thy God will cir- 
cumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to 
love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and 
with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." ^ There 
were sons of Abraham under the old covenant 
whose distinction was not the blood of the patri- 
arch which flowed in their veins, nor the sign and 
seal of circumcision, but the righteousness of 
faith for which Abraham was called the friend of 
God. ''In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath 
made the first old." ^ The Articles of Confedera- 
tion served a valuable purpose in holding together 
the thirteen American colonies for a time, but 
would not suffice for the great republic of to-da}^: 
they were superseded by the Constitution of the 
United States in order to form a more perfect 
union. ''There is a disannulling of a foregoing 
commandment because of its weakness and un- 
profitableness." ^ Weakness and unprofitableness 



iRom. ii. 28, 29. 2Deut. XXX.6. ^ Heb. viii. 13. ^ Heb. vii. 18. 



Israelite and christian experience. 89 

can be construed here only in a comparative 
sense: ''the law made nothing perfect." At 
night the borrowed light of the silver moon is 
welcome; but when the sun has risen, we hold 
the moon weak and profitless, and it vanishes 
from sight. 

Two things follow: we inherit all the benefits 
of the Old Testament, including the truth re- 
vealed and the spiritual experience attainable un- 
der its provisions ; and we are now offered larger 
knowledge and grace than were possible before 
our era. Let us not slight the Scriptures. ''For 
whatsoever things were written aforetime were 
written for our learning, that through patience 
and through comfort of the Scriptures we might 
have hope."^ "From a babe," Paul reminded 
Timothy, "thou hast known the sacred writings 
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation 
through faith which is in Christ Jesus." ^ These 
writings are richer food to our children than they 
were to the Hebrew children. " Know therefore 
that they which be of faith, the same are sons of 
Abraham."^ "And as many as shall walk by 
this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and 
upon the Israel of God."^ The Gentiles are a 

I Rom. XV. 4. 2 2 Tim. iii. 15. s q^I. iii. ij, 4 q^I. vi. 16. 



go EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

late graft, but they through faith partake of the 
fatness of the root of the oHve tree. 

Into pastures of greenness and beside rivers of 
rest our good Shepherd leads us in the Scriptures 
of the Old Testament. The saints of that dispen- 
sation stimulate and support us by their noble ex- 
amples and words. In our homes and churches 
we not only read, but with devout, penitent, and 
rapturous hearts sing, their psalms and prophetic 
utterances, in many cases modified only so far as 
rhyme and meter demand. We need not dispar- 
age the Abrahamic covenant. Mosaic law, and 
voice of prophecy in order to magnify the Christ. 
Moses the lawgiver and Elijah the prophet stood 
by Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, not in 
rivalry, but in homage. 

Wherein consists the peculiar and transcendent 
glory of Christianity? In the two greatest possi- 
ble gifts of God, the gift of the Son and the gift 
of the Spirit. The gift of the Son does not imply 
that his mediation was of no avail before his actu- 
al advent. In the love and purpose of God, Christ 
was offered for the world in all its ages and lands, 
and Abraham saw afar off the day which dawned 
upon the shepherds, and he rejoiced as did they 
long after. Nor does the gift of the Spirit impty 
that before Pentecost he had not touched the 



ISRAELITE AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 9 1 

mind, heart, and will. *' Men spake from God, 
being moved by the Holy Ghost, "^ wrote Peter of 
the prophets. If the Spirit had in no measure 
striven with Israel, there could have been no edge 
to Stephen's rebuke. '^ Ye stiff-necked and un- 
circumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist 
the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye."^ 
'' But when the fullness of time came, God sent 
forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the 
law, that he might redeem them which were under 
the law, that we might receive the adoption of 
sons."^ In John we read: ''But this spake he of 
the Spirit, which they that believed on him were 
to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; be- 
cause Jesus was not yet glorified."^ 

Though there was a preparation of the world 
through long ages for Christ's coming, Christianity 
is not an evolution by a process of moral inquiry, 
practice, and discipline, with the aid of a suc- 
cession of teachers and leaders, without special, 
supernatural action of God. Jesus was not the 
last, wisest, best of Hebrew prophets, but the 
Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, who 
became the Son of man, and is the one Light, 
Lord, and Saviour of the world. New events, 

I2 Pet. i. 21. 2 Acts vii. 51. ^ Gal. iv. 4, 5. ^John vii. 39. 



92 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

new forces, new conditions, were introduced. 
''In the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God. And the 
Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we 
beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten 
from the Father) full of grace and truth." ^ The 
life he lived, the words he spake, the death he 
died, the glorious body with which he arose, his 
ascension into heaven, are facts which created a 
new era, and are creating a new world. He now 
sits on the right hand of the Majesty on high, 
^* having obtained eternal redemption" for us 
^'through his own blood. "^ He ''abolished 
death, and brought life and incorruption to light 
through the gospel."^ The Father in his name 
sent another Comforter (Paraclete, Advocate, 
Helper), the Holy Spirit, to abide with and in the 
disciples forever; not to come and go, not to in- 
spire merely a few select believers, not to walk in 
visible presence with them on the road and sit 
with them in the house, not to teach them with an 
audible voice and respond to their questions, but 
to be in the heart of each believer, to quicken the 
understanding, conscience, and spiritual affec- 
tions, to give comfort, strength, and wisdom in 

ijohn i. I, 14. 2 Heb. ix. 12. ^2 Tim. i. 10. 



ISRAELITE AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 93 

prayer and service, in resisting temptation and 
doing duty, to be an inner fountain of light and 
life. Not to establish a throne of David in Jeru- 
salem, not to free and bless Palestine, but to 
found and extend the kingdom of heaven, over- 
throw evil in all its forms and forces, among all 
kindred, lands, and languages, is the significance 
of the mission of the Christ and of the Spirit. 

I have suggested the difference between the two 
covenants: what is the difference between the 
two experiences? Wherein did Nathanael, an Is- 
raelite indeed before he met Jesus, differ from 
Nathanael a Christian indeed? At each stage he 
was sincere and faithful to the grace given him. 
In the lectures to follow I will attempt to delineate 
Christian experience with some detail; but it may 
be useful now to point out certain features of its 
superiority to the experience of devout and upright 
Israelites. To the Christian, God has come nearer 
in the incarnation of his Son, Immanuel, God with 
us. That was a depth of condescension in the 
Son of God; to us it is a height of exaltation. He 
himself partook of the same flesh and blood with 
us. The Christian takes hold of the infinite love of 
God in delivering up his own Son for our sins, as it 
could not be grasped before the crucifixion. He 
sees in Christ a perfect living ideal of holiness and 



94 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

love under human conditions and the severest 
tests. He has freedom of access to God at all 
times, the fullest boldness associated with the full- 
est reverence and humility, because he under- 
stands the ground of justification and salvation in 
the mercy of God through the propitiation and in-* 
tercession of Jesus Christ: he draws nigh in the 
name and through the mediation of his Lord and 
Redeemer. He is conscious of the sanctifying 
power of the Holy Spirit in his heart, and of the 
witness that he is a child of God. Love to the 
Father, the Son, and the Spirit is a restraint 
against sin and a constraint to all obedience and 
goodness which makes the yoke easy and the bur- 
den light, and transforms self-denial and service 
into a continual feast. Narrowness and bigotry 
are excluded by the revelation that the same Lord 
over all is rich unto all that call upon him, and is 
able and ready to save men of every nation and 
class, and of all depths of iniquity. He is begot- 
ten again unto a living hope, by the resurrection 
of Jesus Christ from the dead, of an incorruptible 
inheritance, and looks up into an open heaven, 
where Christ stands on the right hand of God to 
receive his spirit, so soon as it shall be released 
from the body. 

What date shall we assign to the birth of Chris- 



ISRAELITE AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 95 

tian experience? The question is twofold: his- 
torical, At what period in the world's history did 
it begin? individual, When does it begin in the 
life of a man ? 

The century plant remains for many years with- 
out bloom, a dry root encircled by large, fleshy 
leaves. Suddenly, with surprising swiftness, it 
thrusts up a tall stalk. At this signal the proprie- 
tor invites a number of friends to wait and watch 
with eager eyes until it shall burst into a wealth of 
flowers. Such a root was Israel; such a stem was 
Jesus of Nazareth; such a company were the 
apostles, the mother and brothers of the Lord, 
and other disciples, who in an upper room in the 
city of Jerusalem continued with one accord in 
prayer and supplication, waiting for the promise of 
the Father, until the day of Pentecost was come; 
then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and 
there bloomed forth in rich bounty the consum- 
mate flower, Christian experience. 



LECTURE IV. 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION, AND RE- 
LIGION AS A CONTINUOUS STATE. 
7 (97) 



IV. 

THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION, AND RELIGION 
AS A CONTINUOUS STATE. 

T OCCUPY familiar ground. I speak at the pres- 
^ ent time. My witnesses are before me. '' For 
lo, the kingdom of God is within you."^ The au- 
thority to which I appeal is your consciousness: 
'^ because the darkness is passing away, and the 
true light already shineth.^'^ Christian experience 
is a personal conscious reality. 

My argument is not a vicious circle, first prov- 
ing experience by the Bible, and then proving the 
Bible by experience. The New Testament is, 
however, the norm, the standard, of the experi- 
ence. The very name, Christian experience, 
signifies that it is the product of the gospel, and 
that it conforms to the gospel. But the word '' ex- 
perience " shows that it is a fact of consciousness, 
not of testimony, and therefore does not depend 
on outside prpof . 

The New Testament is not only the rule by 
which experience is approved as evangelical, but 
also a record of actual experience. We need not 



^Luke xvii. 21. '^\ John ii. 8. 

(99) 
IL.ofC. 



lOO EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

assume its inspiration in affirming its historical 
credibility. Men accept it as testimony who deny 
it as authority. The Acts and the Epistles re- 
veal much of the spirit and lives of the apostles 
and other primitive Christians. The story of 
what Christ had done for Paul, and was to him, 
comes out in his letters to churches and individu- 
als, not merely in direct statement, but incidental- 
ly, yet distinctly and with convincing power, in 
exhortation, entreaty, and words of good cheer. 
Whether he wrote under the inspiration of the 
Holy Ghost, or simply under the impulses of a 
great heart, he is a competent witness, of un- 
doubted sincerity, zeal, and intelligence. More- 
over, he declared or assumed that the men to whom 
he was writing had a like experience with himself. 
I am defining my use of the New Testament in 
this discussion. My purpose is to describe Chris- 
tian experience. I might draw the description 
from uninspired sources, from the testimonies of 
men of different times, countries, and conditions. 
You need only to call up into memory what you 
have read in Christian history, biography, letters, 
treatises, hymns, and other kinds of literature, 
and what you have heard from the lips of preach- 
ers and laymen, in order to recognize what I shall 
say as a true representation of the experience 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION. lOI 

which Christians claim. Some of those witness- 
es may have with you Httle weight. But others, 
whom you have known long and intimately, whose 
characters have been tried before your eyes by va- 
rious and severe tests, and have come out of the 
furnace as pure gold, command your full confi- 
dence in their honesty and consistency. Their 
lives correspond with their professions. Many of 
you, perhaps all, have an experience which makes 
you independent of hearsay, though you rejoice 
that your personal knowledge is shared and sup- 
ported b)^ a vast number of brethren. 

Now this experience does verify the word, inas- 
much as it is a fulfillment of its promise to all who 
receive it in faith. You may say: ^ 'Jesus invited 
me to him, with the pledge that he would give me 
rest, life, salvation. I came, and have found him 
faithful. Jesus promised the Comforter, the Holy 
Spirit, to abide in his disciples; and he is in my 
heart day after day." The transcendent worth of 
this experience proves its source. It is too pure, 
noble, and blessed not to be both true and divine. 
The hand of God is shown nowhere more evident- 
ly than in the creation of such a character and such 
a life. Even the observer may discern the marks 
of God's workmanship; but the renewed man 
knows that his spiritual desires, affections, aims, 



I02 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

aspirations, and power are not of himself, but of 
the Holy Ghost: " yet not I, but the grace of God 
which was with me." 

The Pentecost of the Church, the birthday of 
the Christian religion, has already been consid- 
ered. The Pentecost of the individual believer, 
the day on which he receives the Holy Spirit and 
is born into the kingdom of God, now claims at- 
tention. There is a crisis, a change, an ending, 
and a beginning, in which ^'^the old things are 
passed away; behold, they are become new." ^ It 
is called a creation, a birth, a resurrection. These 
figures agree in one thing, the imparting of a new 
life which is spiritual and divine. ''For we are 
his [God's] vv^orkmanship created in Christ Jesus 
for good works." ^ ''Whosoever is begotten of 
God doeth no sin, because his seed abideth in 
him: and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of 
God." " " Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that 
heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, 
hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, 
but hath passed out of death into life." ^ 

Most of the conversions recorded in the New 
Testament were sudden: to instance, the " about 
three thousand souls" on the day of Pentecost. 

1 2 Cor. V. 17. 2 Eph. ii. 10. ^ i John iii. 9. ^john v. 24. 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION. IO3 

Peter preached. The multitude, ''Jews, devout 
men, from every nation under heaven," heard. 
They were pricked in their heart, and said, 
" Brethren, what shall we do?" Peter answered, 
'' Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in 
the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of 
your sins ; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy 
Ghost. " " Then they that received his word were 
baptized." 

There w^ere three remarkable days between 
Paul's first conviction of sin in his blasphemy of 
Christ and wasting of the Church, and his receiv- 
ing the remission of sins and being filled with the 
Holy Ghost. Those three days he was without 
sight, and did neither eat nor drink. What were his 
thoughts, his feelings, his resolutions, his prayers 
(for the Lord told Ananias that Saul was praying), 
during that time of solitude, silence, and darkness? 
They are not written in the Acts. But we can get 
light from his Epistles, especially from the graphic 
seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. It 
may not be strictly autobiographical. He may use 
the first person singular not to designate Saul of 
Tarsus, but to represent the believer, especially 
the convert from Judaism. Certainly he expresses 
himself in terms drawn from his own experience. 
Elsewhere he tells us that he was a Hebrew of the 



I04 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

Hebrews ; as touching the law, a Pharisee ; as 
touching zeal, persecuting the Church; as touch- 
ing the righteousness which is in the law, found 
blameless. His Abrahamic descent, knowledge 
of the law, zeal against Christians, and strict 
righteousness after the straitest sect of the Jews, 
were his pride and trust. I must believe that he 
was not a happy, satisfied man; that there lurked 
in the deep places of his heart a thought, a feel- 
ing, which he never whispered to any man, which 
he smothered in his own consciousness, that he 
was not living a high and worthy life, that his 
spirit was not the spirit of the noblest fathers and 
prophets. Did not some things he had heard of 
Jesus stagger him — some of his sayings, some of 
his acts ? Was there no admiration of the way in 
which Stephen met martyrdom? of the cheerful 
faith and forgiving charity with which Christian 
households endured his cruel persecutions? I 
cannot say. But the crisis came when Jesus re- 
vealed himself. Then his soul was tossed and 
torn in a terrible struggle. He knew that the law 
was holy, and righteous, and good; he found no 
flaw in it: but his own heart was exceedingly sin- 
ful. The law was spiritual; but he was carnal, 
sold under sin. His obedience was to the letter, 
on the outside, not in the spirit, not in the inner 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION. IO5 

man. Sin was enthroned within, and ruled him. 
Sin was an inward sickness, which turned into 
poison the nourishment of the divine law. The 
law shone upon his guilt, perversity, and slavery 
in chains of sin; the law uttered its condemnation 
and anathema: but it did not speak peace; it did 
not reveal a cure of the sin-sick soul. It drew^ out 
of his anguish the cry of despair: ''O wretched 
man that I am ! who shall deliver me out of this 
body of death? " An answer came, but not from 
Sinai. You and I cannot hear the words w^hich 
Jesus whom he had persecuted spoke to him, 
^'when," as he wrote, ^^it pleased God to reveal 
his Son in me." 

Each penitent must have his own sight of Je- 
sus, and hear in his own heart the voice that 
brings assurance. We must accept the answer to 
Paul's question from his ow^n lips: ^'I thank God 
through Jesus Christ our Lord." ** For the law 
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me 
free from the law of sin and death." Life was 
breathed into Paul by the Holy Spirit; and that 
life was peace, freedom, power, sonship, holiness, 
delight in the perfect law of libert}^. The law of 
God was love, and love in his own heart was his 
law\ 

Now this is not the precise path traveled by 



I06 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

every one who comes to Christ. It was not in this 
way that Nathanael, the IsraeHte indeed, in whom 
was no guile, and other followers of Jesus in the 
days of his flesh, passed through the fainter light 
of faith into its meridian splendor. Lydia, one 
that worshiped God — that is, a Gentile proselyte, 
^' whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended 
to the things that were spoken of Paul" ^ — the first 
time she heard the gospel, did not suffer his ag- 
ony. The jailer of Philippi had a midnight hour 
of fear and trembling before he ''rejoiced great- 
ly, with all his house, having believed in God."^ 
But he had no struggle to renounce self-right- 
eousness; for righteousness by any standard had 
been foreign to his thoughts; he had lived, we 
may reasonably infer, in violation of his own fee- 
ble and obscure sense of right, with scarcely any 
compunction or desire after God. His was the 
joy of stumbling suddenly on a treasure beyond 
all price, of which he had never heard or dreamed 
until that hour. Yet there was something com- 
mon to all those persons, the essential thing in 
everyone who becomes a Christian, whatever may 
have been his previous life and condition. What 
is that feature which does not vary? Repent- 

1 Acts xvi. 14. 2 Acts xvi. 34. 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION. IO7 

ance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Je- 
sus Christ; salvation by grace through faith; con- 
Aaction of guilt, of defilement, and of need, and 
laying hold of Christ as the only and sufficient 
Saviour; and consequent thereon, realization of 
pardon and inward renewal through his merit by 
the power of the Holy Ghost. 

Centuries have passed since the apostolic age. 
Christianity has largely leavened those coun- 
tries wath which we are best acquainted. Chris- 
tendom means that in a sense we are Christians 
by natural birth. In the home, school, and 
Church we have had Christian teaching and train- 
ing. We have all our days been familiar with 
Christian examples, conversation, and literature. 
Christianity has, by multiform methods and in 
various measures, molded the sentiments and cus- 
toms of our people. They are not abruptly 
aroused by the blast of the gospel trumpet, threat- 
ening judgment, summoning to repentance, and 
offering reconciliation. They have often heard 
the voice of God in their hearts, and felt the gen- 
tle touch and drawing of the Spirit. Even out- 
side the circle of the saved, we witness in many 
persons a high sense of honor, repugnance to 
vice, gentle manners, kindness of heart, and 
readiness to assist in moral and benevolent en- 



T08 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

terprlses, and even in distinctively religious work, 
which are the fruit and praise of the gospel. 

This widespread culture has not lessened the 
necessity of conversion and spiritual regeneration ; 
but it has modified in a degree their manifesta- 
tion, and especially the emotional excitement at- 
tendant upon them. Sudden and astonishing con- 
versions do occur among us. Drunkards, gam- 
blers, rakes, rioters, thieves, and other criminals, 
are arrested, brought to repentance, and changed 
in heart and life. Not less wonderful is the effect 
of the gospel on skeptics, and on slaves of mam- 
mon, ambition, pride, and fashion. Cries of re- 
morse, shame, and terror are succeeded by shouts 
of gratitude and rapture. But in many cases 
there is little agitation in those who seek, little ec- 
stasy in those who find. They come to Christ in 
early life; or, if later, after a long state of being 
almost persuaded, they yield to the grace of God, 
and, understanding the plan of salvation, they 
easily embrace the promises in Christ, and enter 
peace and assurance. A difference of the same 
sort is seen in Lydia and the jailer. She, virtuous, 
devout, acquainted with the Hebrew Scriptures, 
accustomed to the private and public worship of 
the true and living God, received the gospel from 
the mouth of Paul as the thirsty land receives the 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION. IO9 

dew from heaven. He, roused from moral stupor 
by the strange spirit of the two Jews who, with 
bodies cut by the cruel scourge and feet fastened 
in stocks, had spent the hours before midnight in 
holy and joyous songs, and calm amid the throes 
of the earthquake, instead of escaping from the 
open jail, had saved their keeper from suicide, 
called for lights, sprang in, and, trembling for 
fear, fell down before Paul and Silas, and said, 
*'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" As a bud 
opens to the early rays of the sun, so opened her 
soul to the truth. Like an ice-gorge breaking with 
thunderous crash under a hot sun, so broke the 
hard heart of the heathen jailer under the might 
of the gospel. He rejoiced greatly: no mention 
is made of her joy. But they acted in the same 
way. ^'And when she was baptized, and her 
household, she besought us, saying. If ye have 
judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my 
house, and abide there. And she constrained us." 
^'And he took them the same hour of the night, 
and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he 
and all his, immediately. And he brought them 
up into his house, and set meat before them." 

Still waters need not be shallow. The white 
heat of fused iron may be intenser than the red, 
roaring flames of seasoned timber. Quiet pres- 



no EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

sure may be as effective as ringing blows. Cries 
and sobs, convulsive movements and prostration, 
songs and shouts, hand-clapping and leaping, do 
not gauge strength of feeling, much less of pur- 
pose. A gentlewoman, shrinking from curious 
eyes and ears, may carry heaven in her heart, and 
dare martyrdom for Christ's sake, or, what per- 
haps is greater, spend a long life of joyous self- 
sacrifice in his service. 

What immediately follows the act of faith? 
Peace, never known before; the peace which 
Christ gives, not as the world gives; the peace of 
God which passeth all understanding. A heavy 
burden falls off the shoulders, a galling yoke is 
lifted from the neck, ease and rest enter the soul. 
There is release from condemnation and bondage, 
from anxiety and fear. The good he craved is not 
his own. That God is gracious and merciful was 
ever an article of his creed. He believed it as a 
doctrine of the Bible, as an essential perfection of 
the Godhead, as a truth proved by abundant out- 
goings of divine goodness. But now he is assured 
by his inward experience. God for Christ's sake 
has forgiven his sins. The love of God is shed 
abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit, as though 
his heart were a vessel filled with the light and 
comfort of the divine presence and benediction. 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION. Ill 

This is not expectation, but attainment, fruition. 
He is not afraid of God: God is his Father. Re- 
sponsive to this divine manifestation is love to God. 
The love of the Father, the love of Christ, the 
love of the Spirit, and the beauty and glory of the 
Triune God, are not words, but a reality; and he 
says, with confidence, delight, and devotion. My 
God ! my Saviour ! my Comforter ! Another new 
feeling is love to God's people. He has entered a 
new family; he is bound to Christians by a new 
tie. Humanity he never lacked: but all men are 
more and dearer to him now than hitherto; his 
soul goes out to them as Chfist's redeemed, and 
he longs that they may taste and see with him the 
goodness of God. Hope springs up within him, 
heavenly hope: his present happiness is an ear- 
nest of an eternal inheritance. 

Notice certain features of this experience which 
make it vivid and memorable, i. It is to him a 
novel experience. He never had the like before. 
2. It is not merely different from what he has here- 
tofore felt and been, but contrary to it. 3. The 
change is accentuated by the conflict through 
which he has just passed. For first there is 
awakening, conviction, contrition, struggle. Re- 
pentance is preliminary to saving faith, but it 
quickens the sense of guilt and danger, of inward 



112 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

corruption and impotence to obey the law of God; 
as a man on waking discovers his peril, and is 
filled with alarm, though sleep would have made 
escape impossible; or as lack of sensibility is a 
symptom of approaching death, and yet to recover 
feeling is to suffer acute pain. The reckless man 
comes to reflection, the frivolous to seriousness, 
the hardened to concern. His sins stand before 
him in all their aggravation; their source in the 
carnal mind which is enmity against God appears 
in its depth and foulness; his efforts after right- 
eousness prove his bondage to fleshly lusts and 
evil passions. In many instances there is a sud- 
den deliverance out of an agony of grief and fear 
into freedom and exultation : in all there is more or 
less of the wormwood and gall, of the pressure and 
tightness of the bonds of iniquity, to enhance the 
sweetness of the cup of salvation, the joy of adop- 
tion and of a clean spirit. 4. This is not merely 
or mainly an emotional experience, a change from 
gloom to radiance, from depression to exaltation, 
from sorrow to gladness. It is a change of the in- 
ner man of the heart, of the rules and motives of 
life, of the principles which he holds dearest and 
mightiest. 5. It is the most momentous event in 
the lives of a vast number of persons of all classes 
and cppditions; in childhood; maturity, and old 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION. II3 

age; of the illiterate and the learned, the rude and 
the cultured, the feeble-minded and the philo- 
sophic, the phlegmatic and the mercurial, the mild 
and the stern. 6. Usually it is a distinct, definite 
experience, not only as to its substantial nature, 
but likewise as to time and circumstances. It has 
frequently been written down on or near the day 
of its occurrence ; it has been fixed in the memo- 
ry; after the lapse of many years it has continued 
fresh and vivid, in details of spot and hour, and of 
the exercises of mind, heart, and will that preceded 
and accompanied it, and may be regarded either 
as of its essence, or else as its important accidents. 
I reach this conclusion: The change from a state 
of nature to a state of grace is a fact which the 
Christian knows, and to which he can testify. 

We have stood at the source of Christian expe- 
rience; we have seen it rise. Now let us study 
it as a continuous state, or as a steady onward 
flow. My method will be to consider the leading 
features according to several grounds of classifi- 
cation. This will involve substantial repetition; 
but by viewing the component parts or elements 
of personal piety from different points, we may be 
better prepared to recognize them as answering to 
the scriptural description and as capable of veri- 
fication in consciousness. 
8 



114 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

The simplest and most usual division is into 
facts which imply change of relation and those 
which imply change of nature: to wit, justifica- 
tion, regeneration, and adoption. Justification, 
the remission of sins, reconciliation, non-impu- 
tation of sin, faith reckoned for righteousness, 
changes the attitude toward God. We cease to 
be criminals before the Judge of all the earth, 
rebels before our Sovereign; we are acquitted of 
every charge, and accepted as friends of God, 
loyal subjects, fellow-citizens with the saints. Re- 
generation changes the nature: born again, born 
from above, born of God, we have a new heart, 
a new life; we become partakers of the divine 
nature. New relations result: we enter into the 
kingdom of God; we belong to another world. 
But this is a change in ourselves, in our faculties 
and susceptibilities, by which we are adapted to 
the spiritual sphere. ''Giving thanks unto the 
Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the 
inheritance of the saints in light; who delivered us 
out of the power of darkness, and translated us into 
the kingdom of the Son of his love ; in whom we 
have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.''* 

These two experiences, pardon and renewal, 

1 Col. i. 12-14. 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION. II5 

are inseparably conjoined, and should be equally 
stressed. There is a strong tendency in this day 
to slight the grace of absolution and lay all the 
emphasis on changed tastes and affections. If 
forgiveness be mentioned, it is explained not as 
an act of sovereign mercy through the atonement 
of Christ, but as one of the effects of the inward 
change; it is said that as the man is no longer 
sinful, but holy, his former transgressions cannot 
be reckoned against him. In keeping with this 
view, the incarnation and resurrection of Christ 
are made to perform the ofBce which the Gospels 
and Epistles ascribe to his passion and death, 
wherein he ^'offered one sacrifice for sins for- 
ever." We believe, they affirm, not in a dead 
but in a living Saviour. True; but we believe in 
him who died to save us; that ''now once in the 
end of the world, hath he appeared to put away 
sin by the sacrifice of himself."^ Let us not 
overlook the prominence and emphasis which the 
New Testament gives to the humiliation, suffer- 
ing, and death of the Lord Jesus, as the price of 
our redemption — to the ''blood of the new cove- 
nant, which is shed for many for the remission of 
sins."^ The facts of his propitiation and of for- 

iHeb. ix. 26. 2 Matt. xxvi. 28. 



ii6 experie:nce the crowning evidence. 

giveness through his blood are as marked in 
Christian thought and experience as in the in- 
spired word. The believer with his whole heart 
cries out, " God forbid that I should glory save in 
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! " ^ His dox- 
ology is, ''Unto him that loved us, and washed 
us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made 
us kings and priests unto God and his Father: to 
him be glory and dominion forever, Amen."^ 
Our hymns, our prayers, our testimonies resem- 
ble the worship of the vast multitude before the 
throne of God, ''which come out of the great 
tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb," ^ " saying, 
with a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that hath 
been slain to receive the power, and riches, and 
wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and 
blessing." ^ 

The resurrection of Jesus was not less essential 
to his office as our Saviour than his death ; and 
the rising of the soul out of the death in sin into 
the life of holiness is not less essential than abso- 
lution from guilt. Forgiveness is ascribed spe- 
cially to the death of Christ as its ground ; purifi- 
cation is ascribed specially to the Holy Spirit as 



iGal. vi. 14. 2 Rev. i. 5, 6. 3 Rev. vii. 14. 4Rev. v. 12. 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION. I17 

its source. Peter, reporting to the brethren the 
call of the Gentiles by his mouth, said: ''And 
God, which knoweth the heart, bare them wit- 
ness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did 
unto us; and he made no distinction between us 
and them, cleansing their hearts by faith." ^ 

Sonship involves change both in relation and in 
nature. The change in relation is called adop- 
tion, and is closely connected w^ith justification. 
The convict is more than released, the enemy is 
more than reconciled : God in the riches of his 
grace takes him into his household, not as a serv- 
ant, but as a son and heir. ''Ye received the 
spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 
The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, 
that we are children of God." ^ The act of adop- 
tion does not, however, cover the whole fact: for 
sonship means likeness to God, sharing his nature; 
and this is given in the change of heart, the birth 
of the Spirit. 

Here are three new and abiding facts of con- 
sciousness; great, amazing facts, peculiar to the 
man of faith. They are not only gracious pur- 
poses of God which he has revealed in his word, 
but purposes which he has accomplished by his 

1 Acts XV. 8, 9. 2 Rom. viii. 15, 16. 



Il8 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

Spirit in human experience — the removal of con- 
demnation; the taking av\^ay of the heart that to- 
ward divine things was a stone, but toward earthly 
and sinful things a burning desire, and the gift of 
a new heart which hates sin and loves holiness; 
and the assurance of sonship, with the spirit of 
confidence and filial delight in the heavenly Fa- 
ther. 

Another grouping is based on the several de- 
partments of the soul which the grace of God af- 
fects and transforms. The quickening power of 
religion on the intellect is well known. Conver- 
sion is often the starting point of mental develop- 
ment. But I speak of a more direct and peculiar 
effect, of spiritual insight and knowledge. " The 
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit 
of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither 
can he know them, because they are spiritually 
discerned."^ Unconverted men have been great 
Bible scholars. They have read and reread the 
whole book in the original tongues, and subjected 
it to a searching criticism. But they do not know 
the voice of the good Shepherd. There have 
been able teachers of the science of optics who 
were blind from birth; but the humblest peasant 

1 1 Cor. ii. 14. 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION. II9 

with good eyes has a better knowledge of light 
and color than they. There is a Teacher who 
'^ enlightens the eyes of your heart, that ye may 
know what is the hope of his calling, what the 
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 
and what the exceeding greatness of his power to 
usward who believe."^ The gospel is a wonder- 
ful revelation of God in Christ: it is the moral 
sun to the world. But there is an inner, personal 
revelation by the Spirit, the gift from God of the 
seeing eye. '' Seeing it is God, that said, Light 
shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our 
hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the 
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." ^ 

Grace sanctifies the wide range of sensibility. 
The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and 
joy in the Holy Ghost. We serve the God of 
peace, of hope, and of all comfort. The habit of 
the believer is serene, cheerful, hopeful. Yet it is 
true that though the principles be fixed, the emo- 
tions fluctuate. There are special accesses of joy. 
Even of our Lord we read, " In that same hour he 
rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, I thank thee, 
O Father."^ There are feelings, however, that 
do not come and go; that do not depend on cir- 

1 Eph. i. 18, 19. 2 2 Cor. iv. 6. 3 Luke x. 21. 



120 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

cumstances and occasional stimulus; with which 
we lie down at night, and rise in the morning; 
which continue with us in solitude and in compa- 
ny, at home and abroad, in hours of worship and 
hours of business; which are not the accidents, 
but the substance of experience, and the springs 
of conduct. Such are the desires ; appetites of the 
soul, which do not, like carnal appetites, become 
sated and after an interval crave again, but they 
seek and obtain continuous satisfaction; hunger 
and thirst after righteousness, after God. The 
affections are constant: love to God, to the broth- 
erhood, to all men. Love excludes hate and re- 
venge; but the pure in heart feel abhorrence of 
sin, indignation against wrong, disgust at all vile- 
ness. 

Grace hallows the will. It becomes subject and 
loyal to God. Pliable to every touch and breath 
of the Spirit, it is flint against all threats, persua- 
sions, and bribes that tempt to wickedness. " I 
come to do thy will, O God " ; '* Not my will, but 
thine be done": such is its language. Religion 
is not only thought and sensibility; it is aim, 
purpose, determination; on evil tendencies, a re- 
straint; for lawful desires, a guide and regulator; 
in seeking the kingdom of God and his righteous- 
ness, a constant and glad constraint. 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION. 121 

He who possesses this rehgion, inspiring high 
and holy thoughts, desires, and aims, to which all 
things are subordinated, and which dominates his 
whole life, knows that he has it, and that it is of 
God. 

The phases of Christian experience may be clas- 
sified by their relation to God, the Church, and the 
world. 

The Christian is preeminently a man of God. 
His highest title is a child of God. He values 
human character by the degree of its likeness to 
God. He believes that the searching yet loving 
eye of God is on him, and he fixes his eye on 
God intrust and obedience. He casts all his care 
on God, and rests. The will of God is his law, 
the riches of God his portion, the wisdom of God 
his guide, the glory of God his end. 

We read much in the Old Testament of the 
fear of God; we read also, but not so much, of 
love to him. We read much in the New Testa- 
ment of loving God ; we read something, but far 
less, of fearing him. It miist not be thought that 
the fear of godly Israelites antagonized or ex- 
cluded love. It was not dread, but reverence. I 
am not denying that the fear of his wrath is a le- 
gitimate feeling and motive. Listen to the gra- 
cious Teacher: '^But I will warn you whom ye 



122 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed 
hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, 
Fear him." ^ This kind of fear may indeed sink be- 
low consciousness in a Christian, as the fear of the 
penitentiary sinks below consciousness in a good 
citizen; but it remains true that the penitentiary 
is a dreadful place, and hell more dreadful. De- 
vout fear means awe, homage, adoration, before 
the great and holy God. Self-abasement accom- 
panied the acknowledgment of his majesty and 
of the dazzling glory of his infinite perfections. 
How small, unworthy, guilty, they felt in his 
presence! Yet they did not forget, nor fail to 
plead, his compassions, ceaseless love, precious 
promises, and invitations to find shelter beneath 
his wings. Their own littleness and guilt magni- 
fied his mercy, and raised higher their gratitude 
and devotion. 

Reverence has not lessened under the fuller 
revelation. God's glory shines brighter, and yet 
remains past all finding out. We are but dust and 
worms before him. He is lifted up above us by a 
measureless height. Yet he comes very near to 
us, and we get very near to him. We do not call 
him the God of Israel, but, with personal appro- 

1 Luke xii. 5. 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION. 1 23 

priation, our God. The name oftenest in our 
thoughts and Hps is not Jehovah, but Father. We 
trust, give thanks, praise, rejoice, because of his 
unstained and unbounded perfections. For the 
great King is our Father. 

The greatest possible thought, the greatest pos- 
sible truth, is God. There is no going beyond 
that, no piercing deeper, no rising higher. The 
mind cannot rest until it find God, neither can 
the heart; but having found, they rest in him. 
No other knov/ledge can quiet, inspire, enlarge, 
elevate, and satisfy the soul, like this. 

Modern ethical philosophy harmonizes with the 
gospel in teaching that love is the chief duty, the 
central virtue, the sum of moral excellence. But 
its altruism, or regard for others, too frequently 
leaves God out, and confines itself to men. Chris- 
tianitv has as its first commandment, the love of 
God with all the mind, soul, heart, and strength; 
and as its second, that we love our neighbor as 
we love ourselves. This is the basal and the su- 
preme good and obligation, whole-hearted love to 
the Fountain and Perfection of all that is true, 
pure, and lovely. God himself is love: not that 
there is defect in any of his attributes, for each is 
perfect and infinite ; but that we are compelled to 
conceive of love as the perfection of perfections, 



1^4 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

the all-including good. And he that dwelleth in 
love dwelleth in God, and God in him. This is 
the uncreated, eternal light by which he is encir- 
cled, and which enters and fills his own being. 

The Christian knows and worships God as the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, of one sub- 
stance, of one glory. There is, hov/ever, a spe- 
cialty of relation and experience, in regard to 
each. He loves the Father who spared not his 
own Son, but delivered him up for us all; and he 
goes to the Father in the name of the Son to ask 
for the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Son of God 
became the Son of man; became to us a brother, 
an example. He is touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities, because tempted and tried in all points 
like us, though ever sinless, ever faithful. We 
are bid to be holy as God is holy; in particular, 
to love our enemies, and do them good, that we 
maybe the children of our Father; for he mak- 
eth his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, 
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 
Yet our righteousness, as wqak, needy, depend- 
ent, suffering, and dying creatures, differs in more 
than degree from the righteousness of the great 
Creator and King. Jesus grew from a babe to 
manhood. He was weak and weary; he hun- 
gered and thirsted, slept and woke; he suffered 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION. 1 25 

in body, and had exceeding sorrow of heart; he 
was persecuted unto death. He lived among men, 
the servant of God, the servant of all. He showed 
what goodness and mercy mean in human rela- 
tions and limitations. The believer studies his 
earthly life, and seeks to walk in his steps. Be- 
sides, he trusts his infinite propitiation for sin and 
his intercessions as our merciful and faithful High 
Priest. 

The Holy Spirit is the Teacher, Guide, and 
Comforter, who came after Jesus had departed, 
and stays until the end of the ages. He helps our 
infirmities, not as a companion by our side, but as 
an inspiration in our hearts. What had been mys- 
terious and perplexing in Christ's words and life, 
even to Peter and John, became clear and cheer- 
ing^ when the Spirit shone upon it. The Spirit 
puts on us his seal, and witnesses in us, that we 
are sons of God and heirs of the inheritance. 
The Spirit stirs us up, and infuses activity, cour- 
age, wisdom, strength, so that we are able to do 
God's work and fight God's battles in the world. 
The Spirit is God working in us to will and to do. 

I called patriotism a secular virtue. It is, of 
course, sanctified and uplifted by grace. His 
country, like his family, is dearer to the believer 
because of his faith. Yet patriotism flourishes in 



126 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

nonchristian soil. To the Israelite it was a part 
of religion in a peculiar sense. His people were 
the people of God. The State and the Church 
were one. As a son of Abraham, he claimed God 
for his Father. Different is the bond which unites 
the Christian to the Church. The New Jerusalem, 
the holy city, is a spiritual body. Like precious 
faith, like love to Christ, like devotion to holiness 
and good works — these are the tie between him 
and the saints. '^And he stretched forth his hand 
toward his disciples, and said. Behold my mother 
and my brethren ! For whosoever shall do the will 
of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my 
brother, and sister, and mother."^ This was the 
mark which Jesus valued, not the Jewish face, not 
any natural kinship ; the mark of birth not of man, 
but of God. The purity, honor, and prosperity of 
the Church are dear to the Christian heart; be- 
cause the Church is the bride of Christ, and his 
representative on earth; and each member of the 
Church is to him a brother. 

How large is that household of faith, that family 
of God? No kindred, no language, no condition, 
is shut out. All are sought by Christ. God will 
have all men to be saved, and to come to the 

^Matt. xii. 49, 50. 



THE CRISIS OF CONVERSION. 1 27 

knowledge of the truth. Every man is bidden, is 
welcome. The Christian takes this view of man- 
kind. They are not animals soon to perish, but 
souls to live forever, souls dear to his Father and 
their Father, to his Saviour and their Saviour. 
Under all diversities of color, speech, nationality, 
and social class, he sees the one common fact of 
humanity redeemed in Christ; and he longs that 
they may become one in Christ, now and forever. 
This godliness, which excels mere morality, as 
God, its center and life, excels all other authority, 
this brotherly affection to all of whatever land who 
compose the family of our Father in heaven, this 
love to men everywhere, and of every creed and 
class, because they are one in the love which 
brought hope into the world — is not this an expe- 
rience so distinctive, so deep and strong, so high 
and holy, as to be a matter of knowledge to him 
who possesses it, and an evidence that it came not 
from earth, but from heaven ? 



LECTURE V. 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH. 
9 (129) 



V. 

CONFLICT AND GROWTH. 

IMAGINE a man who walks the earth compact 
^ of purity and righteousness, of faith, hope, and 
love. I am not speaking of the Son of man, con- 
ceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin 
Mary; but of a man born like you and me, and 
later born of God. Is he henceforth an imper- 
sonation and a manifestation of truth, honesty, jus- 
tice, kindness, devotion to God, and joy in God — 
all this, and nothing else? Is he unmixed and un- 
varying candor, holiness, and charity, from every 
point of view, and by every test? 

What was said in my last lecture of Christian 
experience as a continuous state needs to be sup- 
plemented. It is true, but not the whole truth. 
Christian life, as described in Scripture and veri- 
fied in consciousness, abounds in paradox. Solo- 
mon declares that all the paths of wisdom are 
pleasantness and peace; and Isaiah, that no lion, 
or ravenous beast, shall be found in the way of 
holiness, a highway, but the ransomed of the Lord 
shall walk there, with songs on their lips and ever- 
lasting joy on their heads. Yet Jesus warns us 

(131) 



132 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

that narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, 
and few be they that find it; Peter, that our adver- 
sary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, 
seeking whom he may devour ; and Paul and Bar- 
nabas, that through many tribulations we must 
enter into the kingdom of God. These seeming 
contraries met in Paul's experience, " as sorrow- 
ful, yet alway rejoicing." 

Is the religion of Christ a haven of safety and 
quiet? or is it a storm-swept sea, and shall we gain 
the port only at the end of life's voyage? ^' Peace 
on earth," sang the angels at the birth of Christ. 
Yet the Master said, ''Think not that I came to 
send peace on the earth : I came not to send 
peace, but a sword." ^ The convert in the first 
hour of his new life testifies, '' Peace, peace: all is 
peace in my soul." His eye descries no cloud in 
the sky; his ear catches no threat of tempest in 
the air; his heart throbs with no fear. There 
seems one long stretch of beauty and sunshine be- 
tween him and paradise. But John Bunyan, in 
the *' Pilgrim's Progress" and the ''Holy War," 
presents a different picture. The realization of 
these apparent inconsistencies is suggested in these 
words of our Lord, closing his long and loving 

1 Matt. X. 34, 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH. 1 33 

discourse to the disciples on the night of Geth- 
semane and before Calvary: " These things have 
I spoken unto you, that in me ye may have peace. 
In the world ye have tribulation ; but be of good 
cheer: I have overcome the world." ^ 

A changeful life is the believer's: and the two 
great laws of change are conflict and growth. He 
is a soldier; his life is a constant warfare. What 
is the strife ? We cannot improve on the old for- 
mula, which sums up Bible doctrine and Christian 
consciousness: His enemies are a trio — the world, 
the flesh, and the devil. 

He is in the world. The secular and the spir- 
itual life go on together; diverse, yet connected. 
To subdue and use the earth is still his duty. 
There are claims on him as an inhabitant of the 
world, a citizen of his country, a member of his 
community, a neighbor, friend, kinsman, and one 
of a family. He must provide for daily life, and 
meet civic and social obligations. He must con- 
verse, read, and think of a thousand things which 
belong to the present, passing age. These matters 
concern him for the sake of others as well as of 
himself. They demand not only time and toil, 
but interest, and even enthusiasm. Hence arises 

1 John xvi, 33. 



134 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

the temptation to slight and starve the higher na- 
ture in engrossment of mind, heart, and hands by 
the world, even in its most innocent sense. 

This is a disordered world. The wicked are 
the majority. False views and bad customs pre- 
vail. The godly man dwells among a multitude 
who do not care for divine things, or who oppose 
them. To some of these he comes close by ties of 
blood, friendship, or business. They are attract- 
ive in person, culture, intellectual gifts, and ge- 
nial manners. They maybe loose in morals; they 
are, at least, worldly in their thoughts, tastes, de- 
sires, and aims. 

Society is awry. Falsehood, fraud, impurity, 
selfishness, and feuds are not rare. There are 
short cuts to fortune and honor. Sharp competi- 
tions abound ; and scruples of conscience expose 
a man to the arts of the greedy, ambitious, and 
malicious. He is left behind in the race, shut out 
of shining society, cut off from many pleasures, 
and robbed of money and reputation. He is 
tempted to relax his principles, to go with the 
crowd, or to resent and hate. 

Religion requires him not to be of the world, 
though he is in the world; to mingle with men, to 
cooperate with them in many things, and yet not 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH. 135 

to be of their spirit; to live as one whose citizen- 
ship and treasure are in heaven. 

He is in the flesh. ''And that life which I now 
live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in 
the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself 
up for me."^ The flesh has needs, appetites, 
senses, excitements, dullness, weakness, pleas- 
ures, pains. How keen, strong, imperious its ap- 
petites; setting aside, overbearing reason, con- 
science, and whatever is noble and good, that they 
may be satisfied ! And to what excesses they lead ! 
Men are carried captive by their lusts, and plunged 
into sensuality. 

The body is an imperfect vehicle, or instrument, 
for the higher life. A single incident may illus- 
trate this. I knew a man who professed faith one 
night at a camp meeting, and was so filled with 
jo}^ that his face shone, and he shouted praise to 
God amid the congratulations of his friends. Aft- 
er some hours the transport ceased, and silence 
followed. He was surprised and perplexed; he 
tried in vain to revive his happy emotions; they 
seemed to have vanished forever. He said to 
himself, '* I am a fool, a hypocrite. I have made 
a great ado in public over my conversion, but it 

iQal. ii. 20. 



136 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

must have been a delusion, for my gladness has 
ended like a dream." What was the true expla- 
nation? The musician had not lost his skill, but 
the violin was unstrung. The body could no 
longer bear the tension of thought and feeling. 
The collapse was not spiritual, but physical, the 
stupor which follows a severe and protracted 
strain on mind and sensibility. Sleep restored 
the equilibrium, and with the morning came back 
into his soul the peace of God. 

You will recall the words of Jesus to his disci- 
ples in Gethsemane, a gentle rebuke and gracious 
apology for their weakness: '' What, could ye not 
watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that 
)^e enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is 
willing, but the flesh is weak."^ Weariness, 
drowsiness, sluggishness, dullness to respond to 
the truths of the gospel, distraction of mind, ina- 
bility to rise on the wings of faith or to stay on 
heights which have been attained — how often these 
experiences are due to the infirmity of the flesh ! 
Pain and disease aggravate the evil. There is 
temptation in the flow of animal spirits, and also in 
their depression. 

Appetite and sense clamor for gratification. 

, . . ._--—--- 1 1 1 III ' 

1 Matt. xxvi. 40, 41. 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH. 1 37 

Earthly things thrust themselves upon us through 
each of the five senses. Spiritual things are un- 
seen. We tend to doubt whatever is not accom- 
panied with sensation, or to forget it, or to give it 
little attention. 

Flesh is not always in Scripture a synonym of 
the body and an antithesis of the rational nature: 
it is often used as antithetical to the spiritual na- 
ture received in regeneration. ''That which is 
born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born 
of the Spirit is spirit."^ *' They that are in the 
flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the 
flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of 
God dwelleth in you."^ It is called "sinful 
flesh," or ''the flesh of sin." "The Word be- 
came flesh, and dwelt among us," "in the like- 
ness of sinful flesh." He was immaculate in flesh 
and spirit. His hunger and thirst, weariness and 
tears, sufferings and death, not only were a vol- 
untary humiliation for our sakes, but showed forth 
his perfection and triumph. What then is denoted 
by the flesh in antagonism to the spirit? Not sin 
abstractly, nor the body abstractly; but the nat- 
ural man, compounded of a sinful soul and a dis- 
ordered body. They are partners. This is evi- 

ijohn iii. 6. 2 Rom. viii. 8, 9. 



138 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

dent not only in gluttony, drunkenness, lewdness, 
and all voluptuousness, but also in covetousness 
and avarice, vanity and pride, ambition and envy, 
quarrels and fightings: for the body is the occa- 
sion and provocation of these sins, at least in the 
forms they assume in this world. Moreover, the 
soul uses the body as the instrument of sin; for 
instance, the tongue in slander, and the hands in 
robbery. Therefore the works of the flesh are 
set over against the fruit of the Spirit. ''For the 
flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit 
against the flesh; for these are contrary the one 
to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye 
would." ^ 

The Bible teaches us that we have a personal foe 
in Satan. He is a spirit of falsehood and murder; 
a subtle deceiver; the great tempter; the god and 
ruler of this wicked world. I will not affirm that 
experience absolutely proves the instigation, se- 
duction, wiles, and power of the devil; but it at 
least harmonizes with the doctrine of the word. 

This momentous strife, changeful in respect to 
fields, foes, and weapons, but constant in its prin- 
ciples, diversifies and complicates Christian expe- 
rience. It gives rise to fear: fear of coming short 

iGal, V. 17. 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH. 1 39 

of the promised rest; fear of being beguiled, de- 
filed, overcome; fear of dishonoring Christ, and 
of being a stumbling-block; fear of sloth, coward- 
ice, lukewarmness, worldliness, bad tempers, and 
hypocrisy. It arouses to sobriety, vigilance, cau- 
tion, self-examination, diligence, and frequent and 
long waiting on God in prayer. Listen to Paul's 
experience; it was not of defeat and failure, but 
neither was it of easy victory: ^'I therefore so 
run, as not uncertainl};^; so fight I, as not beating 
the air: but I buffet my body, and bring it into 
bondage: lest by any means, after that I have 
preached to others, I myself should be rejected."^ 
How did he conduct the battle, rather the cam- 
paign, better still the lifelong war? ''In pure- 
ness, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, 
in the Holy Ghost, in love unfeigned, in the word 
of truth, in the power of God, by the armor of 
righteousness on the right hand and on the left." 
Prosperity and adversity vary temptation. For 
all life is a trial of faith and fidelity. Prosperity 
tends to enervate, adversity to break down. Pros- 
perity fosters pride, presumption, boastfulness, 
love of the world, and spiritual carelessness: ad- 
versity fosters distrust, murmuring, desponden- 

1 1 Cor. ix. 26, 27. 



140 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

cy, petulance, censoriousness. Grace provides 
strength, wisdom, and armor sufficient for every 
contest. 

The fight is on a broader field and of a more 
aggressive sort. The Christian cannot be wholly 
a private man. His own safety and reward are 
not the sole ends to be sought, and indeed cannot 
be selfishly attained. Loyalty to his Lord, love 
to the Church, and compassion for the world de- 
mand that he be a defender of the right and a 
crusader against all evil. ''To this end was the 
Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the 
works of the devil." ^ The soldier of Christ must 
follow that flag, and press that battle. To estab- 
lish the divine order in all the earth is the positive 
side of the war. His weapons are not carnal, and 
his wisdom is not worldly. Ardent, strenuous, 
dauntless, and unyielding, he should meet guile 
with sincerity, hate with love, and persecution with 
patience. 

Now this militant career of the true and earnest 
believer is known to him positively and certainly. 
A gentle, monotonous, undisturbed condition and 
the continual repetition of easy acts deaden con- 
sciousness. Days, weeks, months, and years may 

1 1 John iii. 8. ^ 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH. I4I 

glide away so smoothly that there shall be little to 
be noticed, recorded, or recalled. Shifting scenes, 
surprises, important events whether sad or joyous, 
tasks requiring strong exertion and pains, evils to 
be resisted and perils to be escaped, shocks of 
alarm and sorrow, thrills of rapture, quicken con- 
sciousness and impress memory. War experi- 
ences are not easily forgotten. Foes without and 
fears within keep the believer's mind on a stretch. 
He stands on guard, exercises himself in godli- 
ness, renews the battle, strengthens his soul in 
God, because he is in a hostile world and has in 
his own flesh a doubtful ally. His principles, his 
motives, are daily and in various methods tested. 
He has to stir himself, to stimulate and cheer his 
own powers, to see that there is no treachery or 
cowardice in the citadel. There are hopes as well 
as fears, hope triumphing over fear. There are 
songs and shouts of victory, and dividing of the 
spoils. There are ecstasies of rejoicing and praise 
beyond what is possible in days of peace. 

What room is there for repentance in a child of 
God? When he first believed, guilt like a burden 
fell off; the power of sin and his impotence to 
serve God loosed like fetters, and he was clothed 
with liberty and strength; fear was lost in filial 
confidence and heavenly hope, bursting like sun- 



142 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

shine through a black cloud ; the pangs and 
bruises of contrition were healed and forgotten, 
as when health comes to the invalid. What re- 
mained and deepened, without sense of condem- 
nation, was abhorrence and hatred of sin, humili- 
ty, and longing after righteousness. Sin was more 
than ever before seen and felt to be loathsome and 
dreadful. Abiding faith yields as its fruit abiding 
peace and power. But omission of duty, neglect 
of privilege, lowering of vital warmth in piety, 
wrong thoughts, feelings, words, or acts, are oc- 
casions of fresh sorrow, confession, and supplica- 
tions for mercy. Childlike trust and assurance of 
the Father's love may not be lost, for there may 
not have been willful transgression ; but with these 
mingle grief and shame, deeper and sharper in 
view of abounding grace, so slow to anger, so 
ready to forgive. If the sweet peace of assured 
acceptance be lost, the soul, in humiliation and 
self-reproach, with vows to be more watchful by 
divine help and earnest pleadings, wrestles with 
God until the joy of salvation is restored. Paul 
gives a graphic account of the repentance of a 
church : " For behold, this selfsame thing, that ye 
were made sorry after a godly sort, what earnest 
care it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of your- 
selves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH. I43 

what longing, yea, what zeal, yea, what aveng- 
ing ! " ^ Our word ' ' godly ' ' may disguise the 
most marked and important characteristic of this 
sorrow as shown in the Greek: it was a sorrow 
according to God. They thought of his law, his 
holiness, his goodness, his displeasure at sin. 
They were humbled and distressed that they had 
not been true and faithful to the God of all grace, 
to the Saviour who had bought them with his own 
blood; that they had grieved the Holy Spirit, by 
the allowance of sin among them. Their repent- 
ance was not lip-deep, but heart-deep. It was not 
a spasm of emotion, but a searching of their own 
hearts and ways in the light of the divine word 
and presence, and a solemn, deliberate, whole- 
souled reconsecration of themselves to God, with 
a profounder conviction of the sublety and viru- 
lence of sin, and a fixed purpose to be more watch- 
ful and resolute against it. Paul rejoiced, not that 
they were made sorry, but that they sorrowed be- 
fore God, with a sorrow that wrought a thorough 
clearing of themselves and a vigilant resistance 
against sin from that time on. They knew their 
own contrition, its purity, its strength, and its 
source in God. 



I2 Cor. vii. II, 



144 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

I mentioned growth as a second source of vari- 
ety in Christian experience. Growth is charac- 
teristic of all life. Personal piety follows the anal- 
ogies of nature. The mustard seed, least of seeds, 
becomes a tree; ^' first the blade, then the ear, 
then the fijll corn in the ear" : these are Christ's 
similes of the kingdom of God. After spiritual 
birth, as after natural birth, there come successive 
stages of development — childhood, youth, maturi- 
ty. The comparison extends to the means of 
growth. There are spiritual appetites and tastes, 
power to digest and assimilate food, a diet varied 
according to age — milk for babes, meat for adults. 
The great laws of exercise and of habit apply to 
the new life. '' But solid food is for full-grown 
men, even those who by reason of use have their 
senses exercised to discern good and evil."' 
'*And exercise thyself unto godliness: for bodily 
exercise is profitable for a little; but godliness is 
profitable for all things ; having promise of the life 
which now is, and of that which is to come."^ 
The spiritual understanding is exercised in hear- 
ing, reading, meditation, and also in teaching; 
knowledge increases, and insight deepens. The 
devotional spirit is exercised in praise and prayer, 

' w>-." ' V * JT. ^;"j ■ ■ ■ ■■■ " ■ ...■■I.. .■■■■■.■■ — I ■ ■■ ■ .1 II ■■ - - ■,.■■ — I , - I. .. I. I .1 ■ ^ I i.i» Ill — !■*• 

1 Heb. V. 14. 2 J 'J'im. iv. 8, 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH. I45 

in secret, domestic, and public worship. The 
godly will is exercised in resisting all tendencies 
and solicitations to evil, in obeying God, and in 
all manner of good works. The Christian be- 
comes stronger and hardier by reason of that 
struggle which I have described. Opposition calls 
forth caution, wisdom, and strenuous effort. Pa- 
tience, fortitude, and constancy are developed un- 
der trials. ''Tribulation worketh patience; and 
patience, probation; and probation, hope; and 
hope putteth not to shame." ^ The most stalwart 
and the loveliest characters are formed and mani- 
fested amid manifold, severe, and protracted af- 
flictions. They are a wholesome discipline. They 
help to reveal faults and infirmities, to correct what 
is wrong, and to strengthen what is weak. They 
prove to the man himself and to observers the gen- 
uineness of his religion. They develop and per- 
fect humility, faith, patient endurance, joy in 
God, tenderness toward men, and appreciation 
of the power and blessedness of grace here and 
of the better inheritance which is reserved. He 
becomes a spiritual athlete, a skilled soldier, an 
expert workman. Habit makes duty easier and 
more delightful. The whole man becomes more 



iRom. V. 3-5. 

10 



146 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

and more adapted to the life of godliness and work 
of the Lord. 

Our Lord used another similitude. ''The king- 
dom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman 
took, and hid in three measures of meal, till it was 
all leavened." ^ A foreign substance is deposited 
in the soul. This leaven works secretly, silently, 
upon particle after particle, imparting its own 
properties, until the whole lump or mass is affect- 
ed, changed. The leaven represents the grace of 
God; that is, his truth and Spirit. The man's 
thinking is changed. His mind dwells on new 
objects, or new lessons. He begins to take God's 
view, Christ's view, of all things. There was an 
old leaven which is purged out. Select one point 
in his change of mind. It was a maxim with him, 
a settled rule, that nobody should be permitted to 
get an advantage over him. He would not be 
outwitted or injured: he would have redress, re- 
venge. Retaliation might be quick and sudden, 
or slow and gradual ; but there must be trick for 
trick, reviling for reviling, blow for blow, until 
the enemy should be worsted. But he has been 
praying, '* Forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give them that trespass against us." He has been 



1 Matt, xiit 33. 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH. I47 

thinking of the forbearance and tender mercy of 
God. He has been studying the meekness and 
gentleness of Christ and his prayer for those who 
crucified him and exulted in his agony, '^ Father, 
forgive them." The obligation, beauty, and no- 
bleness of love which is not overcome of evil, but 
overcomes evil with good, have so impressed him 
that he puts away all wrath and vengeance, and 
could die for his worst foe. All the teachings of 
Christ and all his traits of character are so pon- 
dered, admired, and accepted as his own law and 
pattern, that he becomes Christlike in mind, word, 
and deed. The process described by Paul is ful- 
filled in him: " But we all, with unveiled face re- 
flecting as a mirror," or beholding as in a mirror, 
*'the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the 
same image from glory to glory, even as from the 
Lord the Spirit." ^ " He is not fashioned accord- 
ing to this world, but transformed by the renew- 
ing of his mind, that he may prove what is the 
good and acceptable and perfect will of God."^ 
The end is to be Godlike, God-pleasing, and God- 
serving; and this is accomplished by the trans- 
forming and new-making of his mind. 

The normal experience is steady growth unto 

I2 Cor. iii. 18 2 Rom. xii. 2. 



148 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

completeness and maturity. This is our calling, 
and for it full provision has been made. As a 
matter of fact, to our shame be it spoken, there 
are not only varying rates of progress, but in many 
cases a standstill, or backsliding. Some make 
shipw^reck of faith and a good conscience. Some 
follow Christ for a season, and then quietly go 
away, and walk no more Vv^ith him: their religion 
is an episode. Some lose their first fervor, relax 
their strictness, are filled up with the cares, riches, 
and pleasures of the world so as to strangle the 
heavenly life, become negligent or formal in duty 
and worship: their lamps are going out. Some 
are Reubens, unstable as water: life is a succes- 
sion of forward starts and hasty retreats, of good 
impulses and broken resolves, or alternate spells 
of heat and cold, zeal and sloth. But the Church 
presents in every generation examples of steady 
and progressive piety, of spiritual life in its essen- 
tial unity and continuous unfolding. 

The growth is in knowledge. The most strik- 
ing cases occur in missions among rude popula- 
tions of Christendom or among the heathen. But 
the young convert who has had the advantages of 
Christian nurture, though greatly helped by his 
knowledge of the letter, is only a beginner in the 
knowledge of the spirit of the gospel. He enters 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH. I49 

a new world; he receives new powers. Gradual- 
ly these powers will develop by exercise, and what 
was strange will become familiar by use. The 
things of the Spirit will become distinct, substan- 
tial, luminous. Doubt, perplexity, hesitation will 
give way to clearness of vision, certaint}^ of con- 
viction, and firmness of step. He moves on to the 
full assurance of faith, hope, and understanding. 
I cannot pause on the intermediate stages ; I point 
to the result. It is the fulfillment of Christ's in- 
tercession: ''And this is life eternal, that they 
should know thee the only true God, and him 
whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ."^ It 
was the attainment of Paul, the aged prisoner of 
Christ, soon to be his martyr: "For I know him 
whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he 
is able to guard that w^hich I have committed unto 
him against that day." ^ 

There is growth in self-mastery. Regeneration 
is deliverance from bondage to the flesh and in- 
duement with power to serve God. But the Lord's 
freedman finds it a difficult task to employ those 
members in righteousness unto holiness which he 
formerly yielded as servants to uncleanness and in- 
iquity. The body needs to be restrained and also 

ijohn xvii. 3, 22 Tim. i. 12. 



150 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

to be goaded. The lusts of the flesh are not the 
sole, though a very real, trouble : the tongue would 
run away with him, and passion, and worldly de- 
sire, and gay spirits. He at times feels very dull 
and sluggish, wants ease and to be let alone, or 
groans under sickness and the burdens of life. 
But in prayer and godly practice he acquires skill 
and strength for self-control. He possesses and 
uses himself, mind and body, in temperance, duty, 
and submission to God. 

In the development of the inner life he becomes 
less dependent on other persons, on circumstances, 
and on varying states of his own health and spirits. 
The child needs to be watched, nursed, and gov- 
erned. The man thinks, provides, acts for him- 
self. The believer in his growth does not fall into 
pride and self-sufficiency. He realizes more and 
more his own weakness, folly, and proneness to 
sin, and that he can do nothing apart from Christ. 
Nor does he prize less the communion of saints. 
He gets increasing happiness and help from his 
brethren. But he is conscious of a divine anoint- 
ing which teaches him concerning all things neces- 
sary to salvation, of a spiritual discernment, of the 
light of the Spirit and of experience. If he be 
thrown amid ungodly society or lukewarm Chris- 
tians, the fires of faith and love burn brightly in 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH. I5I 

his own heart, fed and fanned by the Holy Spirit. 
Even in Sardis he keeps his garments undefiled. 
He loves the house of God, and frequents it; but 
if cut off from that privilege, he still holds com- 
munion with his Father, and his own heart is the 
temple of God, filled with the glorious manifesta- 
tion of his presence and favor. He hallows and 
enjoys the Lord's day; but the whole week is 
holy unto the Lord ; every day of the calendar is 
consecrated by the dominance of godly and heav- 
enly principles. He has his moods; he is some- 
times buoyant, lively, overflowing with joy, and at 
other times heavy, despondent, sorrowful, heart- 
broken : but he is not swept away from his sense 
of reverence and responsibility by any gale of hi- 
larity, nor does he lose his hold on God in the 
darkest hour. 

He grows in purity and loftiness of motive. He 
does not lose interest in temporal affairs; in the 
good things which God gives him richly to enjoy; 
in industrial, commercial, civic, social, world-wide 
movements: but he prizes most highly and seeks 
first the kingdom of God, which is the greatest 
good for himself and all mankind. The strife be- 
tween the secular and the spiritual life loses some- 
what of its acuteness by the strict application of the 
principles of righteousness to all matters, the culti- 



152 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

vation of a devout habit, and the end steadfastly 
kept in view to use time, property, and all re- 
sources to the glory of God; so that secularities 
are purified and hallowed. Trust in Providence 
does not lessen, but the riches of Christ are more 
valued relatively to earthly blessings. Human es- 
teem and friendship are not less appreciated, but 
to be approved of God is more and more the stand- 
ard and reward of conduct. Disinterested love to 
God and men waxes stronger in itself and in com- 
parison with other motives. This is the simplicity 
that is in Christ. 

There is growth in the positive, constructive, 
active principles of the new life. In the earlier 
stages attention and concern fasten more on laying 
aside, combating, destroying what is evil; clean- 
ing the field of thorns and weeds; shunning sins of 
temper, word, and deed. This caution and warfare 
do not cease. But the abundant life which Christ 
came to give, the new man created after God in 
righteousness and true holiness, the Christ formed 
in us that displaces the old self, the fruit of the 
Spirit, the increase of holy and devout affections, 
the light that shines more and more unto the per- 
fect day, the service of the Master, the building 
up God's kingdom — -this positive and aggressive 
phase of Christianity grows in prominence. The 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH*. I53 

growing child of God sees that it is his high call- 
ing to be not merely cleansed from all filthiness of 
the flesh and of the spirit, but to be adorned with 
all the virtues; not merely to guard against Sa- 
tan's wiles and weapons, but to assail his armies 
and strongholds; not merely to avail himself of 
the help of his brethren and the means of grace, 
but to encourage and strengthen the brotherhood, 
and to save the perishing. He is to be not a mere 
name, but a life and a force ; a part of the light and 
salt and leaven of the earth. He may be a lay- 
man: then he is to be a lay workman. His busi- 
ness, his capital, his income, must be honest and 
innocent indeed; but they must in addition serve 
the Master, and humanity in his name. His mind, 
and speech, and energy are not his own; he is a 
servant, a soldier, under orders. Every tie by 
which he gets close to others, every means of in- 
fluence, must be used for the redemption and up- 
lift of the world. 

He grows in heavenly hope. It is an anchor 
that holds ; the cable is fastened securely by faith ; 
the flukes grapple the immutable counsel, word, 
and oath of God ; the anchor does not drag. Time 
in its passing continually cheapens other things, 
but enhances hope. The increasing joy of the be- 
liever in Christ does not dull, but whets his desire 



154 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

to be with his Lord. It is the perfection of God 
that he is from everlasting to everlasting : it is the 
perfection of the saint that he will dwell with God 
forever. Jehovah is the God not of the dead, but 
of the living. I have no sympathy with the senti- 
ment that if we could only have one instant's vision 
of the divine beauty and glory, we might then be 
willing to drop out of existence: the vision would 
intensify the longing to behold and adore world 
without end. This life is a vapor; the life to 
come abides forever. But has he not already 
eternal life? Yes; not only in pledge and hope, 
but in possession and enjoyment. His life is heav- 
enly in spirit, and daily acquires more of heaven. 
But the foretaste sharpens the desire for the full 
feast. He anticipates with exultation the fullness 
of joy, the perfection of rest and satisfaction, when 
present disabilities and limitations shall have end- 
ed. Yet there is not impatience to depart, nor 
waning of interest in the kingdom on earth. 
There is an instinctive love of life, a clinging to 
it. There is also a rational appreciation of the 
needs and opportunities of the world by occasion 
of its sin and wretchedness. As the physicfan is 
needed where pestilence rages, the missionarj^ 
where ignorance and barbarism abound, so the 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH. 1 55 

Christian is needed in this world. To him to live 
is Christ, to die is gain. 

Has he passed beyond the reach of temptation? 
No. His only security is faith, watchfulness, and 
all diligence. He is not flurried and frightened 
like a new recruit at the front of battle; but he 
understands better the danger and the means of 
protection. He may not be tempted to carnal ex- 
cesses, or to glaring sins of falsehood and dishon- 
esty, quarreling and fighting, hate and revenge. 
He has subtler foes. There are secret sins, de- 
ceitful sins, sins which wear the diguise and imi- 
tate the voice of virtue and devotion. There are 
insidious forms of covetousness, ambition, vanity, 
pride, willfulness, and vindictiveness. The ma- 
ture believer detects and resists sin in its most 
specious shapes and its slightest degrees. But he 
trusts not himself. He knows that apart from 
Christ he is a sapless, fruitless, dead branch. Sa- 
tan would have caught and sifted Peter, if Jesus 
had not made supplication for his disciple. Paul 
might have been puffed up by his extraordinary 
honors and favors, if God had not humbled him 
by the thorn in the flesh. The Christian keeps 
himself in the love of God by constant, vigilant, 
yet trustful dependence on God our Saviour, who 
alone is able to guard him from stumbling. Along 



156 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

with the watching and fighting against sin, he 
builds up himself on his most holy faith, and 
grows in the spirit of Christ. That model he 
keeps ever before him, and seeks to do everything 
to the glory of God by the indwelling Spirit of ho- 
liness and power. 

There are special seasons of the baptism of the 
Spirit and of communion with God, hours on the 
mount of transfiguration. They may come to him 
in the house of God, in the assembly of his saints. 
They may be his share in a general outpouring of 
the Spirit and blessing on the Church. But often 
they are experienced when he is alone v/ith God. 
The flesh then does not seem a hindrance or a 
burden. The world is shut out. Temporal things, 
the passing shows of earth, are paltry, are forgot- 
ten. There is nothing, not even the presence of a 
fellow-man, between this child and his Father. 
He sees, hears, touches God, but only in a spirit- 
ual sense; spiritual but real, the contact of spirit 
with spirit. 

Some of the most prized and blessed experiences 
are not on mountain heights, but in Gethsemane, 
where the disciple learns in his own experience 
''the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ." It 
is an hour of darkness, struggle, suffering, and 
dread. Calamity impends, or has fallen. He is 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH. 1 57 

tried to the last degree of severity. The heart 
bleeds, breaks, is crushed. But he holds fast his 
faith, is strengthened, gets the victory. He comes 
forth not in a jubilant mood, but though saddened, 
purer, gentler, more patient, more sympathetic, 
with less of earth and more of heaven, with less of 
self and more of Christ. 

Yet most noteworthy are not seasons of extraor- 
dinary exaltation or sorrow, but the daily round, 
commonplace in its circumstances and incidents, 
but holy and divine in the moral principles which 
inspire and control it, the steady character, the 
consistent life, of the ripe believer. Let me quote 
the prayer of Paul for the church at Ephesus as 
an admirable statement of the altitudes of Chris- 
tian experience, yet not of peaks occasionally 
climbed, but of the elevated table-land on which 
they abide: " For this cause I bow my knees unto 
the Father, from whom every family in heaven 
and on earth is named, that he would grant you, 
according to the riches of his glory, that ye may 
be strengthened with power through his Spirit in 
the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your 
hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being 
rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to 
apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth 
and length and height and depth, and to know 



158 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that 
ye maybe filled unto all the fullness of God."^ 
As though he were staggered, or lest they should 
be staggered, by the vastness and sublimity of the 
attainments which he asked in their behalf, he lifts 
his heart in doxology to the Infinite Fountain of all 
grace, in whom we have sufficiency and guarantee : 
'' Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abun- 
dantly above all that we ask or think, according to 
the power that worketh in us, unto him be the 
glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all 
generations forever and ever. Amen." ^ 

Is there such an experience, or is it a dream, a 
fancy? Are there, have there ever been, such 
saints on earth? I do not claim the completeness 
of this gracious state for the majority of even sin- 
cere Christians. I do not claim for them entire 
consistency through a long course of years. De- 
fects, blemishes, failures, lapses, I confess. Yet 
it is much that they set before them such a life, 
and strive to live it; and that they realize their 
aim in greater or less degree. Moreover, there 
are saintly men and women, strong and steadfast 
in faith, harmless and blameless in behavior, zeal- 
ous and tireless in good works, victorious over all 

lEph. iii. 14-19. ^ Ibid., 20, 21. 



CONFLICT AND GROWTH. 1 59 

seductions to evil, unspotted from the world, 
adorned with all the graces of the Spirit, fervent 
in devotion, and full of peace, joy, and hope in 
Christ. Their faces are turned heavenward, and 
they keep the straight and narrow path. They 
show sweetness of spirit in suffering and under 
provocation. They deny themselves, and are 
ready for service and sacrifice to do good to all 
classes of men. They are the salt of the earth and 
the fittest souls for heaven. These jewels of the 
Church are not rare. 

Surely they have the witness in themselves. 
They have meat to eat that the world knows not. 
They feed on the living bread which came down 
out of heaven. In their hearts the water that sat- 
isfies the inner thirst springs up continually. They 
walk with God. They dwell in God, and God 
dwells in them. Their rejoicing, in all humility 
and gratitude, is the testimony of their conscience 
that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly 
wisdom, but by his grace, they conduct themselves 
in the world. Their daily life, their settled prin- 
ciples, their joy and hope, what they have and 
what they seek, contrast with their experience be- 
fore they gave themselves to Christ. They know 
what they affirm. 



LECTURE VI. 



THE TRANSCENDENT VALUE OF THIS 

EVIDENCE. 
11 (161) 



VI. 

THE TRANSCENDENT VALUE OF THIS EVI- 
DENCE, 

nPHE peculiar and transcendent value of this 
-* evidence from experience can now be esti- 
mated. 

I. This evidence is accessible to everybody. 
For its appreciation we need not be scientists, 
scholars, logicians, or philosophers. Certain 
proofs involve archaeology, history, criticism, 
lower and higher, of Hebrew and Greek writ- 
ings: the data must be accepted by most men on 
the authority of the learned and of specialists, and 
the argument requires considerable acumen and 
training in order to be understood and weighed. 
The discussion of other evidences is complicated 
and mystified with subtleties and metaphysics in 
the comparison of theism, pantheism, materialism, 
and agnosticism : if the philosophic guides do not 
lose themselves, many untrained minds that attempt 
to follow soon become confused and despairing, 
without clew, light, or footing, amid night, and 
clouds, and rarefied air, and steep climbing, and 

slippery rocks, and yawning abysms. The argu- 

(163) 



164 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

ment from experience is open to plain people. 
The Pharisees cross-examined and badgered the 
man who had been born blind, argued that Jesus 
could not be of God because he had violated the 
Sabbath in doing the work of mercy on that day; 
exhorted him, '^Give God the praise, we know 
that this man is a sinner"; and at last sought to 
silence him by the taunt, ^'Thou wast altogether 
born in sins, and dost thou teach us?" But the 
witness had good common sense and first-hand 
knowledge of the facts — weapons that have often 
held disputed ground against learning and logic. 
He would not be drawn off into questions and de- 
batings, but stood firm on facts of consciousness. 
*^ Whether I be a sinner, I know not: one thing I 
know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." He 
knew that up to this day he had been sightless. 
He knew that he now saw. The change was mar- 
velous, blessed, unmistakable. ''Now I see " was 
the direct affirmation of consciousness: there was 
no reliance on authority, or testimony, or reason- 
ing, but the certainty of experience. He did draw 
an inference, however. Reasoning, as well as in- 
tuition, marks a rational creature. The immedi- 
ate data of experience, whether through sense or 
otherwise, would be of little advantage without the 
faculties of interpretation, induction and deduc- 



VALUE OF THIS EVIDENCE. 165 

tion. There are conclusions in which we can rest 
with all the certainty we need. It w^as a short and 
safe step from the conscious fact that his eyes had 
been opened to the confidence that Jesus who 
wrought this miracle was from God. 

Men pass now out of darkness into day: I do 
not mean by instruction, as pagans who are taught 
the gospel by missionaries; but here, in the cen- 
ter of Christendom, men who had been blind all 
their lives to spiritual things have the scales to 
drop from their eyes by an* act of faith in Jesus 
Christ, and at and after that instant they see the 
glory of God, the love of the Saviour, the riches 
of grace, and the beauty of holiness, which had 
been hidden from them. They had heard of those 
realities; but what were idle words, or something 
admitted on the testimony of others, of which they 
had only vague or shadowy notions, is henceforth 
matter of knowledge, enjoyment, and practical use. 
To gain a new sense, to be introduced into the 
visible world, to contrast the night unbroken from 
birth, unrelieved by star or lamp, and the day 
v/hich reveals the forms and faces of family, 
friends, and neighbors, city, countr}^, sky, all na- 
ture clad in a variegated and graceful garment of 
light and color — this sudden, vast change may 
well cause shocks, thrills, of surprise, curiosit}^ 



1 66 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

delight, very vivid, very impressive. But though 
the sensations of the man who received his sight 
were fresher and more engrossing on the first day 
than afterwards when they had become familiar by 
long repetition, yet he learned gradually how to 
use his eyes, how to interpret the sense-impres- 
sions, how to infer manifold properties and rela- 
tions of perceived objects from what was given 
directly in sight, and how to employ this knowl- 
edge in walking and work. The eye became more 
and more to him a thing of value, a power for 
good. So it is in the spiritual sphere. The con- 
vert is full of wonder and gladness. What means 
this change? Is it a fact, or a dream? As one 
who gains physical sight may close his eyes, and 
then open them, to certify himself of the differ- 
ence between the former state and the new, and to 
realize more distinctly what the difference is; so 
he who has just entered into the kingdom of God 
recalls his past life, and compares it with his pres- 
ent experience in the revelation of Christ and the 
reception of eternal life in him. There may be 
only the sweetness of a peace which he fears to be 
disturbed. There may be a rush of joyous emo- 
tions. He may refuse to think, or speak, or hear 
of aught else than what God has done for his soul; 
he will not turn to any ordinary occupation, lest 



VALUE OF THIS EVIDENCE. 167 

he lose the vision of his Lord. But the essential 
experience abides, and deepens. He exercises his 
spiritual senses, and applies his spiritual knowledge 
as a guide and motive in daily conduct. There 
are alternations of sunshine and clouds; but heav- 
en bends over him, and the sun shines on. He 
knows for himself, and not for another; he knows 
a personal fact, that whereas he was blind, he 
now sees ; and his sight is not a past fact to be re- 
membered, but a faculty and a fountain of happi- 
ness for all days. This is not taking heed unto 
any prophecies, or teachings, or testimonies, or 
reasonings, as unto a lamp in a dark place; for 
the day has dawned, and the day-star has risen, 
and is shining in his heart. Who can contradict 
that experience ? 

2. This evidence is not only free to all men, but 
is given to those most worth}^ to receive it. By 
worth I mean fitness, not merit. The blessings of 
the gospel are of grace, but they are not uncondi- 
tional. They who ask receive, they who seek 
find, to those who knock the door is opened. 
Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are they 
that hunger and thirst after righteousness. The 
man of single eye is full of light; the pure in 
heart see God. 

Many unconverted persons have an intellectual 



l68 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

interest in Christianity- They like to hear discus- 
sion of its evidences. They read articles, and per- 
haps books, on this subject. They may examine 
without prejudice, rather with an inclination to be- 
lieve: but there are difficulties, doubts; they are 
not satisfied. They may not, like the Jews in our 
Lord's time, ask for a sign, a miracle. They want 
a rational demonstration, an argument complete 
and irresistible. If there should arise a scholar 
conversant with all learning that bears on this 
problem, a logician keen to detect fallacies and to 
draw right inferences from complex and intricate 
premises, a philosopher of depth and breadth and 
height of mind to comprehend the whole matter, 
and to present it clearly and forcibly, so that any 
reader of fair mental ability and culture could un- 
derstand and judge its merits, with what eagerness 
they would devour the book ! But in fact there is 
always something plausible to be said on the other 
side, something which they know not how to an- 
swer. Now God did not send his Son into the 
world to gratify the curious, to entertain men with 
display of skill in dispute, to settle speculative 
questions. Christ came for a moral purpose of 
tremendous and eternal significance. His gospel 
is a probation, a testing of men; it separates the 
wheat and the chaff, the sheep and the goats; it 



value: of this evidence. 169 

IS, according as it is treated, a savor of life, or a 
savor of death. " For judgment came I into this 
world, that they which see not m.ay see; and that 
they which see may become blind." ^ The hum- 
ble, earnest soul, groping in darkness, crying out 
for light, that he may know the way of duty and 
life, and be guided therein, shall receive the gift 
of sight. The proud, self-sufficient, who care onl}^ 
for their own pleasure and reputation, not using 
the light of w^hich they boast, shall lose even that, 
and walk in utter darkness. 

That men need a moral qualification to learn of 
him was a prominent teaching of our Lord. To 
Pilate he said: " To this end have I been born, and 
to this end am I come into the world, that I should 
bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of 
the truth heareth my voice." ^ His sheep know 
his voice. When the seventy disciples whom he 
had sent out returned with their report, " In that 
same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, 
I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, 
that thou didst hide these things from the wdse and 
understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: 
yea, Father; for so it was well pleasing in thy 
sight." -^ 

ijohn ix. 39. 2john xviii. 37. ^L^^^ex. 21. 



170 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

Come, and see. Taste, and know. Take on 
you Christ's yoke and burden, and you shall find 
rest unto your souls. This is the challenge of 
Christianity. It may be objected: ^'This re- 
verses the true order, which demands proof be- 
fore belief. We are bid to accept^ Christ with the 
promise of a spiritual experience which will satisfy 
us of the truth of his claims. But we want the 
evidence first as the ground of faith." I reply: 
We do not require faith prior to all evidence, but 
only to the test of experienced salvation. There 
may be sufficient evidence that one who offers 
himself as a guide deserves your trust, before he 
has brought you to the desired place. Christ did 
not come without credentials. There are valid 
arguments in proof of the truth and divine author- 
ity of the gospel apart from personal conscious- 
ness of the indwelling Saviour. Indeed, the un- 
converted are not wholly without the evidence of 
experience. Felix, the Roman governor, moved 
by curiosity, heard Paul the prisoner concerning 
the faith in Christ Jesus. And as he reasoned, 
Felix was terrified. The truth called forth a re- 
sponse even in that hard heart. He did not yield; 
he said, '' Go thy way for this time." The Jews 
who heard Peter at Pentecost were pricked in 
their heart, and said, '^ Brethren, what shall we 



VALUE OF THIS EVIDENCE. I7I 

do?" The jailer at Philippi, trembling for fear, 
said, ''Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" We 
offer the gospel in this land to men who already 
know enough of its excellence and evidence to 
warrant their faith. They have often felt that 
God Avas speaking to them through his servants. 
They have often known the gentle hand on the 
cords of their hearts which was drawing them from 
sin and ruin to the heavenly Father and the way of 
life, though they resisted. 

The objection, if valid, would apply also to the 
other branch of internal evidence, the self-reveal- 
ing truth and divinity of the word of God; be- 
cause it presupposes for its appreciation moral in- 
sight and responsive feeling. The man who serves 
fleshly lusts, he whose god is mammon, he who 
burns incense daily to his own greatness, he who 
lives to hate and revenge— how shall these men 
see and own the beauty of holiness, the charm 
and obligation of disinterested and all-forgiving 
love, the sublimity of self-sacrifice for the good of 
enemies, the majesty and loveliness of Christ? 
There is a partial analogy in the culture of learn- 
ing and art. The scholar, scientist, musician, 
painter, artist, poet, need no persuasion to apph^ 
themselves assiduously to letters, investigation of 
nature, or study of beauty, grace, and melody: 



172 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

they have the passion, they feel the fascination. 
But how shall we move the ignorantj inexpert, 
stupid ? If there were utterly lacking intelligence, 
curiosity, and susceptibility, from v/hich to start, 
progress would be impossible. The first steps are 
most difficult, least pleasing; but with advance, 
the inward reward increases, and toil changes to 
delight. 

The unregenerate man is not totally blind, so 
that he can see no light, no beauty and use in the 
light. His heart is not such a stone that he can 
feel no thrill at the touch of divine grace. His 
ear is not totally deaf, so that he cannot be aware 
that God is calling. He is not totally dead, so 
that he cannot make the least motion in response 
to conscience, fear, and the grace that would save 
him. Put together two of our Lord's sayings: 
^'And ye will not come to me," rather ^^ye will 
not to come to me," ^^that ye may have life."^ 
^' If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know 
of the teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I 
speak from myself." ^ You have knowledge, con- 
viction, motive enough, to pause, consider, forsake 
sin, resolve to do your whole duty, and to pray to 
God for light, strength, and mercy. Follow the 



ijohn V. 40. 2john vii. 17. 



VALUE OF THIS EVIDENCE. I73 

light, and it will grow brighter, until you come to 
an open, safe, blessed place, with the sun over- 
head. Then you shall have the crowning evi- 
dence, the deep peace, the joy of the Lord. You 
may have been warned not to make an experiment 
of religion, for you would surely fail. It is true 
that to make an experiment to-da}^, or for a week 
or month or year, wuth the thought to quit trying 
after a time if you do not succeed, would be idle 
and wicked. But let your purpose and vow be, so 
long as you live, to seek truth and righteousness, 
to serve God and trust him; and the issue will be 
such a manifestation of himself that doubt will be 
swallowed up in assurance, Christ gives light to 
babes, to beggars, to those who feel and confess 
their need ; and he gives it to be used for guidance, 
purification, and diligence in all good works to the 
glory of God. 

3. This is a cumulative evidence. It grows in 
proportion to grow^th in grace. With advancing 
piety there is less mixture of earthly and carnal in- 
gredients in the new life, which may have occa- 
sioned doubts and perplexity in the mind of the 
recent convert concerning his own state, such as 
Paul felt in respect to his spiritual children in Ga- 
latia when he wrote ; ^' My little children, of whom 
I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you. 



174 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

yea, I could wish to be present with you now, and 
to change my voice; for I am perplexed about 
you."^ Along with the elimination of the ele- 
ments of the old nature, there is an increase of 
the positive virtues which are the fruit of the Spirit. 
The features of the old self disappear; the linea- 
ments of Christ show clearer, more definite, round- 
ing to completeness. '^ No longer I, but Christ liv- 
eth in me."^ The direct witness of consciousness 
becomes stronger. ^^ Peter was grieved because 
he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? 
And he said unto him. Lord, thou knowest all 
things; thou knowest that I love thee."^ The 
more intensely we love God, the more surely we 
shall know our love. This is not reasoning, but 
self-knowledge. But there is at the same time an 
indirect witness of consciousness which gains dis- 
tinctness and strength. '' Try your own selves, 
whether ye be in the faith; prove your own 
selves."^ We would ascertain whether ours is 
genuine, saving faith; whether we have the new 
heart, the mind which was in Christ. We con- 
sider the marks of a believer as described in the 
New Testament; the inward marks, his thoughts, 
desires, tempers, aims; the outward marks, his 

iGal. iv. 19, 20. 2 Gal, ii, 20. 3john xxi. 17. ^2 Cor. xiii. 5. 



VALUE OF THIS EVIDENCE. 1 75 

speech, his acts, from what he is free, what he 
does. We then compare our own inner and outer 
life, known to us by consciousness, with those 
marks, and infer whether we are new creatures in 
Christ, or still carnal and under condemnation. 
If we are honest, and ask for the illuminating 
Spirit of truth and holiness, we shall reach a posi- 
tive and certain conviction of our acceptance in the 
sight of God and of our renewed state in the meas- 
ure of our possession of those marks of the true 
circumcision. 

If professed Christians do not find in their own 
experience a convincing proof of the truth of the 
gospel, may not the reason be either that they lack 
spiritual life, or that it is very feeble and languid? 
I do not overlook the fact that sincere believers 
may be so timid, diffident, despondent in disposi- 
tion that they underrate their own piety, and har- 
ass themselves with groundless fears. Dyspeptic 
and nervous diseases, or very poignant and pro- 
tracted grief, may disorder the mind, and make it 
incapable of a right judgment of the religious 
state. But these cases are exceptional. The rule 
is that the thoughtful, earnest, faithful child of 
God enjoys the assurance of his adoption and of 
the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart. It gives 
him peace and gladness. Hq has access to Godj^ 



176 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE, 

conlidence in presenting his petitions and in claim- 
ing the promises, the persuasion that God is with 
and in him, the courage to meet the afflictions and 
temptations of life because of his trust in the lov- 
ing care of his Father and in the timely and suffi- 
cient help of the Spirit, rest in the merit and inter- 
cessions of Christ, and hope of eternal life which 
frees him from bonda«:Xe under fear of death. This 
happy experience may not be uninterrupted ; there 
may be doubts, misgivings, fears, the burden of 
guilt, at times; at least, the brightness and certi- 
tude may vary in degree. But the ripening saint has 
a more even, constant, victorious frame of mind. 
His fixed habit is devout, sin-hating, glorying in 
the cross, consecrated, resigned, pressing on, re- 
joicing in hope. Relatively the v^orld becomes 
less, heaven more. Temptations lose their power; 
duty becom.es easier and more attractive. Love 
expels selfish and uncharitable thoughts and feel- 
ings. His whole spirit and life become uniform, 
the life of faith, the life of love, the life unto the 
Lord. He does not question; he knows the love 
of God to him, not only as manifested in provi- 
dence and in the word, but as daily shed abroad 
in his heart by the Holy Ghost; and he knows his 
love to God as the supreme passion and law of his 
soul. The newborn child of God rejoices in re- 



VALUE OF THIS EVIDENCE. I 77 

ligion as a light just kindled, suddenly shining upon 
his long night of sin without Christ or hope; but 
the old saint, the father in Israel, rejoices in the 
sun which has long flooded with splendor earth, 
air, and sky, and now nears the meridian. 

Other evidences remain substantially the same 
during the life of an individual, but the evidence 
of experience waxes larger and more brilliant with 
the pilgrim's progress to heaven, his everlasting 
home. 

4. Beyond all else within the range of our per- 
sonal knowledge, the distinctive life of the believ- 
er clearly proves the handiwork of God. The 
Creator is knovv'n to us through the heavens above 
and the earth beneath. There is little use of ar- 
guing with any one Vvho sees in the visible uni- 
verse, in the great system and course of nature, 
only matter and force. He ought to see that there 
is something greater than all the vastness and va- 
riety of matter and its changes, in the mind which 
observes and in a degree understands these things. 
The farmer is greater than the earth he tills, and 
the voyager is greater than the ocean he sails. 
Not that I sympathize with those whose chief joy 
in the enlargement of knowledge by the discov- 
eries of science and in the enlargement of power 

by multiplied inventions springs from vanity and 
12 



lyS EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

pride, as though man were a god. All we learn 
of nature, and all the use to which we can put our 
learning, should lead us to adore and praise and 
trust the God who created all matter with its prop- 
erties and laws, and all mind with its nobler fac- 
ulties. I pity the savage who bows down to stock 
or stone; and I pity the scholar who has no higher 
object of worship than himself, or than some man 
of wider learning or more masterful intellect than 
himself 5 or than science, philosophy, and art. But 
he who is our Father, and not the father of land 
or sea, of sun or stars, has made man the lord and 
end of earth and sky with all their riches; and 
has given him this surpassing excellence that he 
may know, adore, and love the Lord his God, be 
his image, and hold with him blessed and eternal 
fellowship. Not including the angels, whose com- 
panions in service and happiness he is called to be, 
man is of all the works of God the most divine, the 
fullest expression of the attributes of the Maker. 
And that which is highest in man or angel is the 
moral nature, spirit, character; it is sincerity, jus- 
tice, holiness, love. We believe in never-ceasing 
progress, but the climax is reached in goodness, 
which is God-likeness, for God is love: we can 
never go beyond that, no creature can ever go be- 
yond that, though there may be eternal increase 



VALUE OF THIS EVIDENCE. 1 79 

therein, goodness constant in perpetual change, 
the change of unfolding, of growth, world without 
end. This is an elementar}^, essential, immutable 
truth, on earth and in heaven, in this present time 
and through the unrolling of the ages to come, 
that to be good, to be true, pure, holy, loving, is 
the chief thing, most needful for the creature, 
most pleasing to God, the real worth and blessed- 
ness. 

If I could affirm complete, flawless, uniform 
goodness of the Christian on earth, my argument 
would be easy and triumphant. But I claim for 
him the nearest approach to the standard that can 
be found in the world with which we are acquaint- 
ed; I claim further that there have been, and to- 
day are, admirable, charming, sublime examples 
of this moral excellence. Notice how profound, 
how radical Christianity is as a doctrine, as a the- 
ory, if you choose so to designate it, in reference 
to sin and holiness. It inculcates perfect holiness. 
It presents the glorious God himself as the source 
and the pattern of this holiness: ''Ye therefore 
shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is per- 
fect." ^ " But like as he which called you is holy, 
be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; 

1 Matt. V. 48. 



l8o EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am 
holy."^ It teaches an upward look, a lofty aspi- 
ration, a supreme obligation, and hope as high as 
duty. The thought, the desire, fastens on the only 
true good, and that is perfection after the will and 
nature of God. This is our high calling of God 
in Christ Jesus. It refuses to lower its demands 
and promises in accommodation to our baseness 
and weakness, but holds before our eyes the spot- 
less and entire and glorious righteousness of God, 
that we may adore, desire, and resemble him. It 
will not allow sin in any form, in any measure, in 
speech, or act, or thought, or feeling, or aim, or 
motive, sin in omission or half - performance of 
duty, or sin in positive transgression, sin in defect 
of the right spirit, or sin in the presence of a wrong 
spirit, sin against man, or sin against God only. 
All sin must be hated and forsaken. It traces sins 
to their seat within the man, to the secret fountain 
whence the streams flow. It tells us that ^'the 
mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is 
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can 
it be : and they that are in the flesh cannot please 
God."^ There is no disguising of the difficulty, 
the impossibility, which brought the disciples to 

il Pet. i. 15, 16. 2 Rom. viii. 7, 8. 



VALUE OF THIS EVIDENCE. l8l 

astonishment, so that they cried out, *' Who then 
can be saved?" A single specification under the 
charge of sin against men caused that outburst of 
despair: *' Children, how hard is it for them that 
trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God ! 
It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's 
eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom 
of God. And they were astonished exceedingly, 
saying unto him, Who then can be saved? Jesus 
looking upon them saith, With men it is impossi- 
ble, but not with God: for all things are possible 
with God." ^ Our Lord did not speak of crimes, 
sins against the State, nor of vices, sins against the 
body, but of a sin of the heart, trust in money, as 
if it were the chief good and end of man, or, at 
least, the surest and best means unto that good. 
Riches which are desirable as a means, which are 
readily convertible into the material things that 
preserv^e life and minister to our comfort, which 
seem to be a safeguard against future want, which 
also feed vanity and pride in the direct or indirect 
purchase of social and civic honor and power, 
conferring importance and influence on the owner, 
which thus protect him against his fellow-men and 
enable him to abase and punish his enemies — how 

1 Mark x. 24---7. 



l82 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

hard it is to lack them without coveting, to possess 
them without avarice ! It is a sin that does not 
depend on the keen appetites, vivacious spirits, 
and superabundant activities of youth and health, 
but tightens its grip with the advance of years and 
up to the last gasp of the aged man. This is only 
one form of a wider idolatry, the love of the world, 
of its pomp, fashion, pleasures, praise, and honor. 
How strongly this sin is intrenched and fortified 
in human nature ! Yet the religion of Christ wars 
against it, and demands its destruction. Not a fair 
outside, but a pure, godly heart, is its require- 
ment. The carnal mind, the old self, must be 
crucified. 

The diagnosis of the disease is not more extraor- 
dinary than the remedy which the gospel provides. 
Instruction and training beginning in infancy, pa- 
rental authority and affection, good example, pub- 
lic and private exhortation and entreaty, are means 
to be diligently used: but not one, nor all of these, 
is the renovating power. God himself is that 
power. First, God was manifested in the flesh; 
a divine teacher, example, and propitiation ap- 
peared on earth; the crucified, risen Lord be- 
came head over the Church he redeemed with his 
own li^e. Next, the Holy Spirit, not seen, but 
known by his presence and action, enters the 



VALUE OF THIS EVIDENCE. 1 83 

heart, enlightens and draws, cleanses from sin 
and imparts his own holy nature; that which is 
born of the Spirit is spirit; the Spirit of God con- 
tinues in the changed man as the source of a new 
and developing life. Faith, not sight, guides the 
Christian; love to God and man, not the lust of 
the flesh, nor the love of the world, is his control- 
ling principle; to please God, not to please him- 
self nor men, is his aim; the divine will, not hu- 
man opinions and customs, is his law. There is 
a new leaven, spiritual, holy, divine, working in 
the believer, working out the sinful, earthly na- 
ture, working to produce all pure and heavenly 
desires and affections, working through his inward 
transformation to hallow and elevate the whole 
speech and behavior, the outer expression of the 
true man. 

Is this theory and promise only? or is it fact 
and power? Deduct from Church statistics hypo- 
crites, the self-deceived, formalists, men who have 
a name to live and are dead. There remain mil- 
lions whose deepest, strongest desire and effort is 
to fulfill the righteousness of the divine law in 
walking not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 
They love God and all other objects. They aim 
so to think, feel, and act that God will approve 
them. They grieve over their departures from 



184 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

right, their shortcomings from the fullness of duty 
and holiness. Their chief treasure and joy is their 
faith, hope, and love in Christ. This is their life, 
this their experience in the dying hour. 

This higher life exists on earth in various stages 
of purity, vigor, and fullness. There are saintly 
men and women. The whole number now living 
is not small. They are exceptions to the general 
experience and course of mankind, not in outward 
conditions, not in their bodies, but in freedom 
from sinful practices and tempers, and in the 
steady exercise of the highest virtues. Theirs is 
not a cloistered piety, a life of mere meditation. 
They do spend many hours of delight in secret 
communion with God. But they mix with their 
fellows; they labor, trade, converse, participate in 
various enterprises and pleasures: in all these 
things they carry out consistently their strict prin- 
ciples of truth, justice, purity, and kindness. 
They are thoughtful and intent on doing good, 
relieving want and pain, teaching the ignorant, 
comforting the sorrowful, lifting up the degraded, 
converting sinners from the error of their way, ad- 
vancing the kingdom of heaven; liberal with their 
means, active in service, ready for sacrifice. Mod- 
est, humble, seeking no praise, they are gentle, 
patient, cheerful, grateful, hopeful, in all trials; 



VALUE OF THIS EVIDBNCE. 185 

diligent, untiring, in daity duty and all ways of 
usefulness open to them; as neighbors, friends, 
kindred, members of the family, members of the 
Church, they meet every claim, and show sweet- 
ness of spirit; their hearts go forth to all classes 
and to the ends of the earth in sympathy and be- 
nevolence, and they are helpful as far as their 
ability extends. Is there anything better, nobler, 
lovelier on earth than this character, this spirit? 
Can philanthropy desire for our world a greater 
blessing than that it may be peopled altogether 
with persons like these earnest Christians? Must 
they not be of all things in the universe, so far as 
known to us, most pleasing in the eyes of God? 
Do they not exhibit the fullest marks of the divine 
workmanship? Very happy is the saying of mys- 
tics quoted by Inge in his Bampton Lectures on 
Christian Mysticism: ^'We need not seek for his 
footprints in nature, when we can behold his face 
in ourselves, is their answer to St. Augustine's 
fine expression that all things bright and beautiful 
in the world are ' footprints of the uncreated Wis- 
dom.' " Not that we should cease to study and 
admire the footprints of God's wisdom in nature, 
but that we should still more admire the reflection 
of his holiness and love, the essence and glory of 
God, in sanctified humanity, and long to be im- 



l86 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

ages of him who has so loved us as to call us 
sons. 

To stick in sense, when we should soar in spirit, 
is still a sore temptation. Instead of laying stress 
on the ethical and spiritual, men fix their thought 
and desire on physical benefits, such as freedom 
from pain and disease. They seek a sign from 
heaven, a sensible demonstration of the supernat- 
ural world. Faith cure, Christian science, myste- 
rious seances, writings and wrappings, illustrate 
this tendency. It is imagined that these things 
exalt faith. Really they would substitute sense 
for faith. They would have apparitions and mes- 
sages from the dead. They would be told facts of 
no importance except as evidence that they were 
communicated to the medium in a supernatural 
way. They are not content to pray to God for 
bodily healing or other secular good in submission 
to his wise and holy will, and to receive it in the 
use of ordinary means, or else to believe that the 
withholding is a greater blessing. The specific 
petition must be granted, and in such shape as to 
prove that it is a direct intervention of Providence. 
Even among Christians who do not embrace those 
delusions we often find an intense desire for visi- 
ble, tangible answers to prayer which almost or 
quite amount to the miraculous; and the marvel- 



VALUE OF THIS EVIDENCE. 187 

ous feature is what they most prize, because it will 
be a prop to their faith. To instance, the invalid 
must recover without medical treatment, and after 
every one has despaired, in order that the cure 
may be known to be of God in honor of the peti- 
tioner. " Blessed are they that have not seen, and 
yet have believed." A few weeks ago I received 
a request from a lady to pray for her. She was 
in a hospital. A surgical operation had already 
been performed on one eye; the other eye would 
be treated after a few days; the fear, the proba- 
bility, was that she would spend the remainder of 
her life in total darkness. For what did she de- 
sire me to pray? Not for her physical ease, not 
for the greater blessing of sight, but for the greater 
blessing of a patient spirit. ^^Ask your husband 
to pray for me, tha,t I ma}^ have the grace of pa- 
tience in this trial.'' The simple trust, the perfect 
resignation, the tender conscience, the supreme 
longing for grace that patience might have in her 
its perfect work, to the end that she might be 
perfect and entire, lacking nothing — -this is the 
evidence that she is ''God's w^orkmanship, cre- 
ated in Christ Jesus for good w^orks." God give 
us such healthy souls, however frail, tattered, 
and rickety the tents in which we for a time 
may dwell. 



l88 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

5. Consciousness can, yea must, be trusted. If 
honest and attentive, we may be sure that we love 
God and all men, and that our supreme aim and 
endeavor is to glorify him in body and soul. We 
can certify ourselves that we bear in our spirits 
and lives the marks of the Lord Jesus, as described 
in his word. But can we have an intuition, a con- 
sciousness, of God? Or is it only an inference 
from the great work wrought in us that God is the 
author ? 

That God can act directly on the soul, it would 
be irrational to doubt. That he does thus act is 
the distinct and repeated affirmation of the Scrip- 
tures. Let me add one proof text to the many al- 
ready quoted in these lectures: '' He that hath my 
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that 
loveth me : and he that loveth me shall be loved of 
my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest 
myself unto him. Judas (not Iscariot) saith unto 
him, Lord, what is come to pass that thou wilt 
manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 
Jesus answered, and said unto him, If a man love 
me, he will keep my word: and my Father will 
love him, and we will come unto him, and make 
our abode with him." ^ Now the omnipresence of 

IW l II I I ■ ■ ■ ■■■ M ■■■■IP— !■ II I .1 ■■ll..» , .1- l■l■^^l.■l■- ^— ■■■■■■■ ■ ^ ■■ ■■■■■■■ — I I II ■■III — » 

ijohn xiv. 21-23. 



VALUE OF THIS EVIDENCE. 189 

God embraces all men. There is no escape from 
it. Evidently there is a special sense in which the 
Father and the Son come to the believer, and 
make their abode with him. They dwell with 
him, as members of the same family dwell togeth- 
er. Christ adds indeed the promise of manifesta- 
tion to that of presence. He will commune with 
the disciple; will show himself, and speak to him. 
The disciple, therefore, enjoys the presence of his 
Lord as a conscious fact. 

This is what the Book says. What is the testi- 
mony of the men who love Christ and keep his 
commandments? The witnesses are a mighty 
host. They lived in different countries and cen- 
turies. They represent all classes in respect to 
property, education, intellectual gifts, tempera- 
ment, social position. Some were converted from 
heathenism; others had Christian culture from 
their birth. Among them have been not only de- 
ceivers, but visionaries and fanatics. But multi- 
tudes were sane, sober, thoughtful, reasonable. 
Many were as well trained and as well endowed to 
judge and report their own experience as any men 
mentioned in history. There is general agreement 
in the testimony of their tongues and pens on cer- 
tain main facts. These facts are not visions, not 
voices; not phenomena of sense. They did not 



190 EXPERIENCE THE CROWNING EVIDENCE. 

see the Lord, or hear him, or touch him, in any- 
bodily way. But they felt that they met him again 
and again ; that he responded to their praises and 
prayers in such manner as to convince them that it 
was the Lord; that he disclosed to them his glory 
and his love ; that his blessing filled their hearts ; 
that a sweet and holy calm, a reverent and un- 
speakable joy, a satisfaction in God as the object 
of trust, worship, and love, came to them, not of 
themselves, not from any worldly or human source, 
but as the immediate gift of their Father and Sav- 
iour. There were times of exalted experience, 
more vivid, rapturous, and strengthening than 
their usual state. Yet with many of them the 
daily habit was a sense, a persuasion, that the Holy 
Spirit was with them; that they walked with God, 
that a steady flame of devout faith, love, and joy 
was kept up by daily help from divine grace. 
One might express it in one way, and a second 
man in another; but the reality of the divine 
presence and communication v/as not doubted 
by them, and it was affirmed as a personal ex- 
perience. 

Seek for yourselves this best evidence. Prove 
Christianity by being Christians. Walk in the 
light; walk with God. Get rid of the earthly, of 
the carnal, of the selfish; of all that dims the eye, 



VALUE OF THIS EVIDENCE. I9I 

of all that defaces spiritual symmetry and beauty. 
Long for God, and give him every opportunity to 
make himself known to you : let e}^, ear, the whole 
soul, be open to the divine communication. Be- 
cause filled with God, you shall have the certainty 
that your life is divine. 



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